Everything is perfect After all
by Bette0Porter
Summary: The story takes place two months after Jenny's death. So Bette and Tina are together and they're living her lives with their friends, in Los Angeles. I decided to let them stay, rather than move to New York. I don't like the thought of them living far from their friends.
1. Chapter 1

There was a nice smell of coffee. It was nine o'clock in the morning. The beautiful brunette was lying down in her bed. Looking at the ceiling, enjoying the silence. That was a warm and peaceful Sunday morning.  
-Mommyyyyy!-  
Or maybe just-a-little noisy morning.  
-What Boo?- Bette ran into Angie's room -You were having a nightmare, weren't you?-  
-Yeh, there was a monster.- Angie said, rubbing her eyes.  
-Oh, my poor little monkey. Go back to sleep. It's Sunday, you can sleep a little more.- Her mother kissed her forehead. -I'm going downstair. If there's something wrong, just call me. I'll be right here defending you from all the monsters. Okay?- Bette said, tikling her baby's tummy making her giggle.  
-Okay, mommy.-

Two months have passed since Jenny died. At first they thought it was a suicide. But apparently that night the writer took some pills, right before Bette and Tina's goodbye party started. Then she drank something. The pills-drink mix made her faint. Sadly she was on the second floor and fell into the pool. She drowned. The girls were shocked about what happened. Surely, Jenny haven't been very kind to them, in that period. But they wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Tina was in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.  
-Mmm, it smells good!- The mocha-skinned woman said, kissing her wife's lips.  
-Glad you like it.- Tina said, rubbing her back. -Angie had a nightmare? I heard her screaming.-  
-Yeah, she was having a dream with some kind of monsters.- She smiled as she sat down. -I left her sleep a little more because is Sunday. I was thinking about going to the park. If you want to.-  
-Sure! Sounds nice.- Tina said as she fixed some breakfast and handed the plate to her lover. The two of them started eating, getting ready for a new day. Together. In their own house with their little angel. Yes, _the_ house. The one they lived in for twelve years. Lot of thing happened in that house. There was too much history in there. They couldn't accept the fact that someone else could have lived in their house. They were still in Los Angeles. After what happened to Jenny, Tina decided to stay near their friends. The though of leaving them killed her. Well, killed both of them.

The happy couple brought Angie at the park. They left after a couple of hours. They were supposed to meet the other girls at The Planet. Helena and Kit kept working so hard to make that place look every day better than ever. They were great business partners. Bette was happy for her sister. Finally she found a kind man who loved her: Sonny. She deserved that after all the crap she's been through. She was satisfied with both business and private life.  
-Hey you guys!- Bette and Tina greeted their friends.  
-Porteeeer.- Alice screamed.  
-It's Porter-Kennard, Alice!- Tina laughed.  
-Yeah, I know. Since you both got married a month ago you two are Porter-Kennard, now. But I prefer calling you with your original surnames. The new one it's too long.-  
-You never change.- Bette smirked.  
-So, I can call you Porter?-  
-Well, okay. Actually we still use our surnames when it comes to business, or something like that. For example: Tina is Porter-Kennard as my wife. But she's Tina Kennard, when she's at work as a producer.-  
-Oh I see. Fine! This is way more better, now.-  
Tine smiled and rubbed her wife's back as they both took a sit.  
-Where is everybody?- Bette asked.  
-Kit is with Helena in their office, talking about business, I guess. Tasha is at the accademy and Shane is at Molly's. They are on their way to The Planet, though.-  
-Still hanging out those two, huh?- Tina smirked.  
-Yeah, that's wierd!- Alice said excited. She loved that when it was gossip time. -I mean, you know. It's Shane we're talking about.-  
Bette and Tina chuckled. -Well, yeah. It's kinda strange actually. But it's cute. Maybe it's time for Shane to settle down. I'm happy for her. They both seem to be so into each other.- Bette added.  
After Shane found out about the letter Molly's wrote her. That made Shane fall in love with her even more. So she did her best to convince Molly to come back to her. Apparently she managed to do it. Now, they have been together for two months and that was the happiest period of Shane's life. Finally the new couple made her entrance at the pub.  
-Look who's here!- Shane said happily -Nice to see you guys.-  
-Hello girls- Molly waved at them.

The group sat at the table. The same table as always. It was like a special place for them. They shared a lot of things there. Laughters, tears, jokes. The flying table that Tina flipped when Bette cheated on her. That was one of the things that the girls always remembered. Sometimes they talked about it. At the time it was sad but after all those years, talking about that scene made them laugh. 'It was kinda scary, actually'. Bette punctually stated, everytime Alice brought that argument in their conversations.  
-Auntie Kit!- Angie called her aunt and ran toward her.  
-Hi baby girl, I missed you.-  
-My mommies took me at the park, this morning!-  
-Yeah? Did you have fun?-  
The little girl nodded.  
-Yes, we had a lot of fun.- Bette smiled, caressing her baby's head. Then she turned to her friends -We were thinking about having dinner at our house. Do you guys want to join us, tonight?-  
The group agreed. They loved having those family nights.  
-Great! We'll see you tonight, then. I think we should go to make everything ready for the dinner.- Tina said. Then the couple and their little one left The Planet and headed home.

Everything was ready. The table was in the backyard near the pool. It was laden perfectly. Bette was checking out some little thing and acting like a control freak. As always.  
-Ok let's see...- She was reading her famous list.  
-Oh, baby please stop!-  
-What?-  
-This!- She said as she pointed the paper piece Bette was holding -You're acting like a control freak.-  
-I know, but...-  
-No buts.- Tina kissed Bette's lips.  
Then Bette pulled out -I just...-  
-Shhh- Tina gave her one more kiss -Behave! Otherwise...-  
-Otherwise what?- Bette asked teasing her wife.  
-Otherwise I won't make you a happy woman...- She kissed her -Tonight...- Another kiss -In our bed.- One more kiss.  
-Okay. You win.- Bette stared at Tina -What if we start like, right now?-  
-Baby, I'd like to but I need to cook the dinner. I don't think our friends would be happy.- Both chuckled.  
-Okay. Then you have to give me extra-pleasure tonight.-  
-Your every wish is my command.- The blond woman winked.  
_Fuck! I don't think I'm gonna make it if she does that._ Bette spoke to herself. She was clearly turned on by her wife. -I'll help you with the dinner!-  
-You think we should tell them about it?- Tina asked.  
-Are you sure?-  
-Well, we talked about it. Since we both made our decision, we should totally do it.- She smiled.  
-I'm looking forward to see Alice's face.- Bette laughed.  
-She is surely going to torment you with that!-  
-Oh God! Didn't think about that.-  
-Well, nevermind. I think you'll look great pregnant.-  
They both smiled.  
Finally they were going to have another baby. And this time Bette would have been the one to carry their child. Tina's new job was really secure. The salary was good. So they could afford their expenses. Plus Bette sometimes worked for some museums, curing some exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York. But with that there wasn't any risk for her health as she was working from home for most of the time. Everything was absolutely perfect for the perfect couple, finally.


	2. Chapter 2

Their friends arrived at seven o'clock. They all were sitting on the couch in the living room, talking about random things.  
-How come Tasha isn't here?- Tina asked Alice.  
-She couldn't make it. She was working on something about the accademy, you know.- She said.

There were Shane, Molly, Alice, Helena, Kit and the beautiful couple with their daughter of course. They looked like a happy big family. They loved those moments. Sitting at the table eating, drinking and most important things: laughing and enjoying the time together.  
It was almost ten and it was time to Angie to go to sleep.  
-I'll put her to bed.- Tina said -Say goodnight, sweetie.-  
-Goodnight aunties.- She rubbed her eyes. She was clearly sleepy. -Nighty-Night, mommy.- Angie said, kissing Bette's cheek.  
-Goodnight, Boo. Love you!-  
-I'll be right back.- Tina said, winking at her wife. -And we'll tell you something really exciting.- She added, turning to her friends.  
Tina headed her daughter to her room and started to read her a goodnight-story. It took always about fifteen minutes. Angie loved when their mothers read stories to her. She was a book eater. Just like her mama B.  
-What the fuck? It is taking hours!- Alice said. She was impatient. Well, you know how Alice is. When it's time to gossip, she is at the first row.  
-Just be a little patient, Alice.- Bette laughed -It will be worth the waiting, I promise.-  
-Oh God! Tina is pregnant. Isn't she?-  
-I don't know what you're talking about.- Bette said with a serious voice, trying not to laugh. _You're gonna be shocked when you'll know I will be the one to carry the baby._ Bette smiled. -Here she is!-  
Tina came back to the backyard.  
-Sooo, what do you guys have to say? What is it, what is it? Are you pregnant, right? I'm so clever. I know!- Alice couldn't wait to know.  
-Baby. Why don't you tell Alice?- Tina said, putting her hand on one of Bette's hips.  
-Okay, well. We have decided to have another baby. On our own, so...-  
-I knew it!- Alice stood up jumping up and down excited and clapping her hands.  
-Oh God! Alice, let her finish!- Shane said, making everyone laugh.  
Alice shut and looked at Shane giving her a 'You're an asshole but I still love you' look. Then she looked back at Bette who finally managed to give her friends the great news.  
-So we wanted to tell you that I will carry the baby.- Bette announced.

All their friends started to greet and hug the couple. They were happy to see their two friends so in love, again. There were no doubts. They were made for each other and the news of a new baby was clearly a sign that those two were happy together and ready for another big step.  
-Oh my God.- Alice was shocked -Oh my fucking God!-  
-Alice! You're lucky Angie's asleep.- Tina warned.  
-Exactly, she's asleep, so I can swear right now. Fuck! I can't believe it. I can't imagine you pregnant.- She started teasing Bette and started laughing.  
-Jesus. I knew it.- Bette said, putting her hand on her own forehead. -Alice, this is the third time you're acting like a child. If you don't stop it I'm going to throw you into the pull. Believe me, I will.-  
-Woah! Mama B isn't pregnant yet and she's having her smood swings already.- Alice teased her again.  
-Ok, you asked for it!- Bette started to run after Alice and grabbed her for her hips as she threw her friend into the pool. Everything they could hear was a 'splash' and then Alice's cough.  
-PORTER!- She screamed.  
-Alice! There's my daughter sleeping on the second floor. If you don't stop yelling you're gonna wake her up!- Bette said pretending to be angry. She was amused, actually.  
-You're going to pay for this!- Alice uttered, then she turned to Tina -And you should've stop her. She's mean. She could've killed me.- She muttered getting out of the pool.  
-As my wife said: you asked for it!- Tina smirked.  
Everyone laughed. -Oh come on, Alice. It's almost summer, some fresh water won't kill you.- Shane couldn't help but laugh. That was hilarious.  
-Yeh, yeh! You are forgiven just because I love you both.- She got closer to Bette and Tina, trying to hug them.  
-Oh no, no no no. You're not going to do this!- Bette stated. Trying to run away to avoid to get wet. Tina did the same thing.  
-Fine. I'm not talking to you 'till the day I die.- Alice declared.  
-You just said you love us. You're not gonna make it.- Tina chuckled -Come with me, I'll give you some dry clothes. That way you will be able to hug your favourite friends.-  
-She's a freak,- Bette said, crossing her arms and shaking her head -but we can't live without her.-

It was nearly midnight and the group of friends left. Finally the house was quite and the couple was ready to enjoy each other's company.  
-Wanna clean the dishes?- Tina asked to Bette pulling her hands on her own hips with a smug expression on her face.  
-Uhm, I had something else in mind, actually.- She pulled her wife closer and kissed her neck. -Remember? You said you would've made me a happy woman, tonight.- She sucked her ear lobe. Tina breathed heavy. -I think we should continue this in the bedroom. I'm so ready to give you some extra-pleasure.- She said looking into her lover's brown eyes -I think you totally deserve it.-  
The two of them started kissing. They approached to the stairs and walked upstairs without pulling out. -We're going to fall down.- Tina giggled.  
-Shhh, I got you.- Bette held her tighter as she kissed the blond woman again.  
Finally they reached the bedroom letting the door close behind them.  
They were still kissing then Bette pulled out to catch some breath -I want you, T. I need to feel you.-  
-Kiss me, don't stop kissing me.- Tina said.  
They quickly got undressed. Tina pushed Bette on the bed, making her fell in the middle of it on her back. She slowly climbed into bed resting on top. -Spread your legs.- She whispered in her wife's ear.  
The brunette's mouth left a soft moan as she did what Tina asked, so she could give her full access to her pulsing center. The blond started to rub her clit against Bette's. They both moaned. Without pulling out Tina kept kissing her wife and slowly lead her tongue among Bette's breasts then down to her stomach. She got back to her beasts and cupped them and started massaging them. -T, please. I want you...- Bette managed to say -inside me.-  
Tina cuckled and then sucked one of her wife's nipple. That made her let out another moan. This time it was louder. She finally reached Bette's center with her hand -Oh, baby, you're so wet.- Started to rub her clit -Huh, Tina!- Bette arched her back and pulled her head back -Please Tina... Oh Jesus.- Then the blonde beauty slipped two fingers into Bette's scorching hot flesh. She started moving them slowly then she gained some speed and bended her fingers to reach the G spot. That made Bette's come as she left out a very loud moan. -Fuck!- She was breathing heavily -Fuck, you're awesome. I love when you do this.-  
-When I do what?- Tina said, licking her wife upper lip.  
-When you take over control. It gets me crazy.-  
-I like that too.- She giggled -I love seeing you completly armless.-  
-Well, know I think you deverse some payback.- She was trying to flip over, but Tina stopped her. -Don't. I just want to sleep on your naked body. I reached enough pleasure just making you come, tonight.- She smiled and kissed her wife one more time. Then the two of them fell asleep.

The day after Tina had the day off. The couple was sleeping a bit more. Angie's pre-school was closed due to some repairs. So the happy family was enjoying some relaxing time when a loud noise came from downstairs. It was someone slamming against the door.  
-What the hell is that?- Bette jumped off the bed.  
-I don't know, let's go to find out.-  
Both of them put on their pajamas. They were still naked due the love-making. Slowly went downstairs. The slam on the door kept going on as the couple open it and a sobbing woman showed up.  
-Alice?-


	3. Chapter 3

Their friend was there, at the front door shaking and crying in pain. Bette was starting to talk to ask what happened as she was cutted off by her friend.  
-What is it that make you cheat on the person you say you love?- Alice said looking at Bette.  
-Excuse me?- The mocha-skinned woman was puzzled.  
Tina put a hand on her wife's shoulder. She clearly knew what Alice was talking about -Honey, come in.- She led her friend in the living room, letting her sit on the couch -What happened?-  
The woman didn't stop shaking. Her breathing was fast and heavy. She looked at Tina -Sh... She cheated on me! When she said she loved me.- She took a deep breath -She cheated with Jamie.- Tears falling down both her cheeks.  
-Why did I let her come back? Why?- She shook her head. One hand through her hair -I knew she was gonna hurt me. I knew those two had a shot. But I've been too idiot to believe that maybe that was just a momentary thing.-  
Tina hugged her friend -Honey, you're not an idiot. Sometimes we do crazy things for love, you know.- She didn't know what to do and say, actually. She gazed at Bette, who didn't know how to act either.  
-I'll... I'll bring you some water.- Bette said as she put a hand on her friend's shoulder. -Calm down, okay? You need to calm down. You're shaking, it's not good for your health.-  
-Calm down? How can you possibly know how I feel?- She stared at the brunette. Her eyes burning. -How can you know, how does it feel to be cheated on?-  
Bette was hurt by those words. She knew that in that moment, at the sight of her friend, she was a 'cheater'. She didn't say anything. _I can't blame her, after all _. Looking down to the floor, she went into the kitchen. Filled up a glass of water and brought it to Alice. -Here it is. I'll be right there, in the kitchen.- She wasn't feeling helpfull at that moment. She was starting to feel a huge sense of guiltiness, instead. It hurt her watching her friend crying like that. Sometimes she thought about what she did to Tina and how she must have felt. Now she did know. Looking at Alice, she knew how broken Tina was some years before. She couldn't do anything at that moment. So she sat down at the table, in the kitchen and let her wife to comfort their friends. _Fuck. That hurt._ She sighed.

Tina and Alice was still on the couch. They didn't talk for several minutes. Tina just left her cry all her pain and, above all, rage away. She totally knew how she was feeling. She knew how she was hoping to grap her own heart and throw it away, to not be able to feel that pain inside. She also knew that Alice still loved Tasha. That's why it hurt even more.  
-Want to talk about it?- Tina said, pulling away a lock of hair from Alice's sweaty forehead.  
-What am I supposed to say? It hurts. It fucking hurts.- Starting crying again.  
-When did it happend?-  
-Yesterday. Remember when I said that she was working on a project?- She said as Tina nodded. -Well, she was at Jamie's!-  
Tina rubbed her friends back with her hand -Jesus. I'm so sorry.-  
-Can I stay here for a little while? I don't want to come back home. Too much memories.- She sobbed.  
-Of course you can!- Tina smiled. -It's gonna be alright. I promise. I will be okay.-  
Then the southern beauty excuses herself and entered the kitchen in which there was her wife, lost in her thoughts. -Hey!-  
-Hey- Bette gave her a weak smile -How is she?-  
-Hurt,- she replied -but it will be fine. How's you?-  
-Huh?- The brunette gave her a questioning look.  
-Yeah, how are you?- She asked -You look a little lost?-  
-Oh...- her wife shook her head -No, nothing...It's nothing.- She smiled -I'm just a little concerned about Alice. That's all.-  
-You sure?-  
-Yes. I'm sure.-  
Tina hugged her wife. She knew Bette was hurt by Alice's words. -She didn't mean that. You know. She's just hurt and she doesn't realize what she's saying... It just takes time.-  
-I know.- She looked in her wife's eyes -I love you.-  
-Love you too, babe.-

Alice fell asleep on the couch. Exhausted by her own thoughts, sobbing and tears. That has been a strange afternoon. The women didn't exchange many words. They just comfort Alice whenever their friend broke down in tears. Well, actually, Tina did the comforting thing. Bette just stood there, watching and thinking. With every passing minute, she felt more and more guilty. She thought that with Tina's forgivness she managed to get throught that. Apparently, she didn't. She didn't forgave herself. _Alice is right. How can I possibly know how she feels? And more than that. How can it be possible to cheat on the woman you love? I did. And I still don't know why. Fuck. I hate myself so fucking much._  
-Baby!-  
Bette was so lost, again, in her own thoughts that she didn't hear Tina's voice.  
-Uh, what?-  
-Baby, I was saying it's time for dinner and I was asking you if you can give a call and order some pizza?-  
-Oh, yeah. Sure, babe.- She gazed at her beautiful wife. _I hurt you. And you forgave me. How did you manage to do that? I can't barely think about forgiving myself. _  
-Baby, what's going on?- Tina asked. Bette didn't want to bother her wife with those thoughts. It didn't feel right to her, to bring that old story out. She didn't want to hurt Tina brinking her back to those days.  
-Mommy! I'm hungry.- Angie said. She was in the living room watching some cartoons with Alice. The baby was on her godmother's lap. Staying with her godchild made her forget about the pain she was feeling. Maybe not completly forget. But she was able to not to cry at least.  
-Yes, sweety. Mama B is going to order some pizza!- She caressed her wife's cheek. -We will talk about that, okay? Promise me. I know there is something that bothers you. I don't like to see you that way.-  
-I...- Bette was trying to say that everything was fine. But it wasn't. Her wife knew her better than everyone. So that was just a waste of breathe. She could't hide it anymore. -Okay. Sure...- She smiled weakly. -I'll order pizza then.- as she kissed her wife's lips.  
-Great!- Tina winked to her wife. Trying to cheer her up.

The cute family and their friend eat dinner together that night. Unlike a few hours before, they managed to talk more at dinner time. It was largely thanks to Angie, actually. She was able to make everyone feel good even saying just a little word with her cute voice.

It was time for them to go to sleep. Tina and Bette put Angie to bed and entered the living room. Bette thought that maybe it was better if Alice slept with Tina that night. -What if Alice sleep with you, tonight? I don't think it's a good thing, for her, to sleep alone.- Actually, she wasn't ready to talk about her thoughts to Tina. She knew that her wife could have been able to ask her what was bothering her, before to fall asleep. She didn't feel ready to talk about it. So she just used an excuse to avoid it. -I will sleep in the guest room.- She smiled at her friend.  
Alice smiled back. -Are you sure? I don't want to cause any trouble to the two of you.-  
Bette was relieved. She was expecting some kind of attack from Alice. -Of course, I'm sure. Don't worry.- She said nicely.

The three of them finally got ready for going to bed. Tina hugged Bette and whispered in her ears -I know you Bette Porter. I know you want to avoid my questions tonight. But we still have to talk.- She smiled and kissed her nose -Please, don't put yourself behind a wall. Talk to me, when you're ready to do it. Okay?-  
-I will, baby. I promise. Goodnight.-  
-Goodnight, sweetie.-

Bette ran into the guest room. She was alone, finally. She felt like a huge boulder fell off from her shoulders as she broke down crying. Letting herself fall on the bed. Her face buried in the pillow.


	4. Chapter 4

That was a tough night for Bette. She cried the whole night. She kept tossing and turning. After several hours she managed to fall asleep. Exhausted. It was almost eight in the morning when Tina entered the guestroom and sat on the bed, near her wife. She gazed at the beautiful woman in front of her. Sleeping, laying on her stomach. With both her hands under the pillow._You're so beautiful_. She said to herself, pulling her fingers throught Bette's hair. Slowly. Trying not to wake her. _God, I'm so lucky to have you_. The blond woman stood there. Admiring her soulmate.

Bette felt her wife's eyes gazing at her. She flipped over and started to stretch. Her eyes still closed.  
"Good morning" She whispered as she opened her eyes and smiled.  
"Good morning, sweetie" Tina said, bending down and kissing her woman's forehead.  
She kept caressing Bette's hair. Tina knew that she had passed the night crying. She could say that by looking at her eyes. They were red and swollen.  
"Did you cry all night, didn't you?"  
Bette swallowed and slowly sighed. That was a 'yes' to Tina.  
"Want to talk about it?"  
She sighed again and looked at her wife -I feel guilty.- She finally admitted and then looked down.  
"About what?" Tina questioned.  
"About what I did to you, four years ago" Her eyes full of tears.  
Tina felt her heart breaking. -Oh baby, you don't have to.-  
"Yes, I do!" She stood up, sitting on the bed. Her elbows on her lap and the hands against her forehead. "I can't forgive myself. I hurt you. I hurt you so fucking much. And when I saw Alice, crying like that, yesterday I felt like fainting. I looked at her and I automatically saw you, in her shoes four years ago. I can't stand it. I can't... I can't accept the fact that you suffered like that. Because... of me" Her voice broke down and she started sobbing.  
Tina was speachless. She never saw Bette talking and opening up that way to her. She was telling her all her thoughts, feelings and fears. She could feel a kind of relief in that. She finally knew that they were working things out just because they finally was talking to each other. Then she cupped Bette's face.  
"Baby, there's no need to keep mulling over these things. It happened. And it wasn't only your fault. You understand?" She looked deeply into her eyes "I hurt you as much as you hurt me. I had been awful to you. I shut you out. After the loss of our baby I didn't think about comforting you. You were suffering too bur I've been so fucking selfish. We should've been comforting each other. We fell apart, instead. That was both, mine and yours fault. Not only yours" Her eyes couldn't hold her tears as they fell down her cheeks. "I forgave you a long time ago... please forgive yourself. And forgive me as well. That is all in the past. Okay? We are here, now. Stronger than ever. And as long as we talk to each other and share our fears, we will get throught everything. Together" Now she was sobbing. "I love you. I've never stopped loving you. I will never do".  
Bette pulled her wife closer and hugged her. Still sobbing and crying. But this time those weren't tears full of regret. They were happy tears. She was happy because God had given her such a beautiful gift: Tina. And from then on she promised herself that she would've never been able to hurt her again.  
"I love you, T. I love you, I love you, I love you" She kept repeating it. Like if it wasn't enough. "I forgave you too. We should've talked rather than hurt each other that way. We wasted a lot of time for such foolishness".  
"But now, we are here. Nothing will tear us apart, again! Nothing."  
"Nothing" Bette echoed. She smiled and kissed her wife.  
"How are you feeling, now?" Tina asked, pulling away from the kiss.  
"Way better" She chuckled.  
"Great. We need to do this. Everytime there's something bothering one of us. We have to talk to each other and work things out, together."  
"We will, baby. I promise" She said as she yawned. "God, I didn't sleep so much" She laughed.  
"Bad girl, you Bette Porter-Kennard. Bad girl!"  
Bette laughed out loud. "You want to spank me?" She teased.  
"Oh yes! I will spank you. But now I prefer to hug you" She hugged her wife as both of them let themself fall down on the bed. Bette on bottom and Tina on top. Kissing for a while.  
They stood there, hugging for several minutes then Bette broke the silence. "What time is it?"  
"Uh, it's..." Tina said as she started to look for the alarm clock around the room "It's nine"  
"Oh God T, you should've been at work!"  
"I know. But I preferred to work things out with my wife, at first."  
"Yes, but you're going to get late, now."  
"Well, I'm one of the bosses. I can do that. You know."  
"I like it. Boss Tina."  
Both of them giggled. Tina gave her another kiss "Well, I think it's time to go to work now. I'll see tonight, okay?"  
"Uhmm, don't" The brunette pulled out her famous pout.  
"Baby, I need to go to work... I will make it up to you, I promise" She winked.  
"Sounds good. I will be waiting patiently then."  
"Good!- She smiled -So, I'll call you" She opened the guestroom door.  
"Okay, oh T?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Where's Alice?"  
"Oh she was still asleep. Tough night... You know."  
"I see..."  
"Well, I'd better go. I already made breakfast for the three of you. Eat it!v  
"Sure! I'm starving" She caressed her belly and made a cute face.  
"Oh wait until you'll get pregnant. You will be starving 24 hours a day" She couldn't help but laugh.  
"Yeah, I'm going to be huuuuge."  
"You're going to look gorgeous!"  
Bette smiled at what her wife just said "See you tonight. Have a nice day, baby."  
"You too!" Tina left the house and went to work.

Bette exited the guestroom and decided to go checking up Angie. Her baby was sleeping. Since the pre-school was closed, she left her sleep a little more. She closed the door and headed to the kitchen.  
Tina made pancakes and coffee. _My beautiful woman. She's such a wonder-woman_. She fixed herself a plate and filled up a cup of coffee and sat at the table. She started eating as Alice entered the kitchen.  
"Morning..." She said rubbing her face.  
"Hey! Good morning" Bette smiled at her friend.  
Alice smiled back. "Huh, pancakes!"  
"Yeah, Tina made some coffee too. She's at work now. Want me to fix you a plate?"  
"Sure" Alice replied as she sat down. She was a little nervous. "Listen... I..." she sighed.  
"What? There's something wrong?" Bette was concerned.  
"No, I just... I want to apologize for yesterday. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have treated you that way. I've been an asshole."  
"Alice, it's ok. You had all the reasons."  
"No, I hadn't. You're not Tasha. You didn't deserve that."  
"Thank you" Bette smiled "Come here" She pulled her friend closer and hugged her. "How are you feeling?"  
"I don't know" She gave her a weak smile. "I think it's a matter of time, now"  
"It is. Yeah. It's gonna be fine. Tina and I are here for you. Remember that."  
"I know," she smiled "you two guys are the best friends a woman could ever have"  
"And so are you, Alice" she handed her a cup of coffee -Now, let's eat our breakfast"  
"Yep!- She took the cup from Bette's hands "I want to start to think about myself, now. You know? I think it's time for me to take good care of myself. No more Tasha. We're not meant to be together. I don't want to hurt myself anymore"  
"Well, it's good that you're making some decisions rather than stay there and mull over. You have my support in this" Bette gave her a smile.  
"I have to. We only live once. We can't stay here and just wait for a sign. We have to act on things. And if something is not good for us, it's better to turn the page and start writing a new chapter."  
"Where's Alice? You're not my friend, you're so clever right now. You're scaring me" Bette said, making Alice laugh. Then she smiled again "I'm sorry I'm kidding... Anyway, I totally agree with you. You're strong. I know you are. And you'll get throught this"  
"I will!" she lifter her cup of coffee "To Me!"  
Bette did the same "To You!"  
Both friends smiled.


	5. Chapter 5

It was going to be a very busy day. That afternoon Tina was having a meeting with a lawyer who was going to finance the new project. After a long time, the blonde found a job position that made her happy and proud of herself. She was working as an esecutive producer at 'Line Pictures'. It was an indipendent studio in Los Angeles. Usually most of them are situated in New York City, it was absolutely a Godsend. That way Bette and she wasn't forced to move and leave their friends.

"Mark wants to see you in his office, as soon as possible" Tina's assistant said.  
"Thanks Catie, I'll be there in a minute."  
Mark was her new boss. He was a good old man and he trusted and loved Tina as if she was his own daughter. The two of them found a bound immediately. The woman admired and respected him blindly.  
"Hey Mark, did you want to see me?" Tina said as she entered her boss's office.  
"Yes, Tina." he moved his hand in a way to tell Tina too sit and smiled.  
The blonde was a little nervous, she didn't know if that was a good or bad news. She sat down and sighed deeply.  
"Don't be nervous! That's nothing to be nervous about. I just wanted to say that the lawyer can't make it for this afternoon, but he absolutely want to have this meeting. So he suggested to meet us this evening at nine, at his hotel. We're going to have dinner there, in the hotel restaurant."  
"What? At nine?" she hated to work that late.  
"I know, I promised you that I wouldn't make you work that late, but this is something we can't refuse. This man is a big one. And our studio is an independent one. We need that financial. And he looks to be so damn into this project. Please Tina, I don't want to upset him" Mark prayed her.  
Tina rubbed her forehead _Fuck! How am I supposed to say this to Bette?_ "Okay, fine. Well I guess we've finished?"  
"Yes, thanks Tina."

The blond left the office. Clearly upset but she couldn't refuse to do it. That was her job and sometimes you just have to. She led into her office, closed the door behind her, took a deep breathe and started to dial her home's number. _Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fucking fuck! Please answer the phone. Answer the fucking phone._ Bette didn't answer. Alright, maybe she's out. I'm calling on her cellphone. She dialed the number. _FUCK!_ Unreachable. She started to get really upset and started to walk back and forth in her office. The blond beauty dialed her house's number again and left a message.  
"Baby, it's Tina. I'm trying to call you on your phone but it's unreachable. I guess the battery is dead. Please call me. I need to tell you something. Don't worry it's nothing to worry about... Just please don't kill me. Ok, I love you. Bye."  
_Okay, breath Tina. Just breath. She's going to understand._

Meanwhile Bette was at The Planet with Alice and Shane. She hated to be at home. That was boring. The fact that she was the one to stay at the house, now, while Tina was working made her feel useless. So she just tried to spent some time with her friends to avoid to feel that way.  
"It seems like your roles just switched" Shane laughed.  
"Yeah, don't remind me. It sucks. I know I said that I wouldn't mind to stay home and look after our children. But when Tina's at work, Angie's at school and I'm home alone, I just don't know what to do by myself. I feel like going crazy."  
"Well, you're here now. With your lovely friends!" Alice said.  
"Yes. Lovely. Expecially you, Alice" Shane teased the blonde.  
Bette laughed. "What the fuck?" Alice pretended to be hurt.  
"Oh come on, Alice. You know we love you" Bette winked. She hugged her friend. Lately she was a little bit more apprehensive with Alice. She felt like she had to protect her and cheer her up due to what she was going through because of Tasha. It was something dictated by the fact that she was still feeling guilty. And being able to got her friend's back was like a kind of a first step to start to forgive herself.  
"So, how are you feeling about the fact that you're going to carry the baby?" Shane was curious and amused by the fact of seeing Bette pregnant soon.  
"Well, I'm quite nervous, actually. But in a good way. I'm happy to be able to do it. It feels so good to think that very soon a new life will grow inside of me" her eyes filled with tears "I'm so happy to have this other chance with makes me the happiest woman on the earth"  
"You both deserve the best. You went through too much and this is your redemption" Alice said. She was so proud of her two friends.  
"Thank you, Alice. It means a lot" Bette smiled "I'd better go, now. I'm going to pick up Angie and then I have to make dinner"  
"Bye Mama B" Alice and Shane waved at their friend.

Bette picked up her daughter at the pre-school and once she placed Angie in the car sit, she headed immediatly to their place. It was six when they arrived at home. She pushed the answering machine button. There was one new message and it was Tina's. Bette panicked as she heard 'I need to tell you something. Don't worry it's nothing to worry about'. Obviously the first thing Bette did was: starting to worry. She dialed her wife's office number.  
"Tina!" Bette uttered without letting Tina say a word.  
"Bette, sweetie, what's up?"  
"What's up? I heard the message."  
"Oh yes. The message. I said to not worry. Calm down, babe."  
"Well, when you hear something like 'it's nothing to worry about', the first thing that you manage to do is -actually- starting to worry."  
"Baby I'm sorry, I promise I'll make it up to you" Tina whispered in a flirty way.  
"Yeah, you better come here soon and make it up to me."  
Bam! That's not good. That made it more difficult to tell Bette about the dinner with the lender. _Oh fuck!_  
Then Bette added. "So, what is it?"  
"Huh, I... babe please non get mad, okay?"  
"Well?" the brunette was starting to get upset, actually.  
_Ok, let's do this_. "Rememeber the meeting? The one with the lawyer who wanted to finance our project."  
"Yes, so?" _If that asshole did something to T, I'm going to kill him._  
"Yes... Well, we were supposed to meet this afternoon. But he couldn't make it so we're going to meet tonight at nine..." _I'm dead._  
"Oh T, you scared the hell out of me. That's what it is?"  
"Uhm... Yeah." _What the fuck? She's not mad. She's talking in a sweet and kind way, actually. _  
"Baby, I know that sometimes work can be a huge pain in the ass. It's not your fault. I'm sure that you had not choice" Bette reassured her lover.  
"Oh God, baby. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so happy that you are not mad at me. That was killing me. I know I promised you that I wouldn't have been at work after seven" she took a deep breath "I will make it up to you. I will double-make it up to you"  
"Sounds like a plan!" Bette giggled.  
"Well, I'll see you tonight, baby. I'll come back as soon as I can. Can't wait to fuck you senseless tonight and snuggle with you in our bed"  
_Fire! FIRE! Oh my fucking God._ Bette swallowed. "Can't wait, baby. But next time -please- don't tell me those things through the phone. I'm going to need a cold shower now, because you're not here with me right now"  
Tina laughed. "You're bad"  
"ME? I am not the one who said that she wanted to fuck her wife senseless. You can't turn me on like that when we're distant. I'm going to die."  
Both chuckled. "Babe I gotta go, now. Kiss Angie for me! Love you"  
"Sure, sweetie. Love you"  
The brunette talked to herself "Cold shower. Here I come" Bette sighed and headed to the bathroom.


	6. Chapter 6

Bette was sitting in the backyard. Her daughter was playing with her toys, on the ground, right next to her. The weather was amazing. Summer was finally close. It was a quite evening. Usually Bette loved that. She always loved relaxing at home, reading her newspaper or a book and enjoying the silence, after a long day at work. But this time there was no work and that was starting to be enough for Bette. She picked up a pair of books from her bookcase and started to read. She even read one of them for three times that day. She was totally bored. She was such bored that she didn't even notice what she was reading...  
_What the hell?_ She stared at the book she was holding. _LezGirls? Seriously? Am I really reading LezGirls? _  
"Why the fuck is this book in my hands?" She closed the book.  
"And why the hell am I talking to myself?!" she turned to Angie. "Baby, mommy is losing her mind".  
Her little one giggled. She didn't know what her mother's was talking about. The brunette picked up the phone and dialed a number.  
"Hello?"  
"Kit, I'm losing my mind."  
"Hey baby sis. Wazzup?"  
"I'm home. I'm fucking bored. I just read the same fucking book for three fucking times and I even started to read 'LezGirls'. Yes, axactly. LezGirls. Tina is going to work late tonight and I don't know what I'm going to do in the next fucking hours." Bette sighed and almost laughed at herself. She sounded like she was seriously losing her mind. And that was kinda funny.  
Kit couldn't help but laugh. "Oh baby sis, you want me to come there and make you some company?"  
"That would be great!"  
"I'm on my way. See ya in a few minutes!"  
"Awesome!"  
They both hung up the phone.

Tina was getting ready for the meeting. It would have been in less than two hour. She was kinda nervous but she was one of greatest executive producer in that period. She took a deep breathe and gained all the nerve she needed to face the meeting. The blonde wanted to hear from Bette one more time. She picked up the phone and called her wife.  
"Hey T"  
"Baby, I wanted to hear your voice one more time. It makes me feel good and stronger."  
"Sweetie, are you nervous?"  
"I little bit, yeah" she admitted.  
"Oh, it's gonna be fine. You're one of the best axecutive producers, I know that you will do a great job and Mark will be proud of you."  
"Thank you baby, I really needed that. Miss you! I'm so sorry I can't come back early."  
"Don't worry T, we have the whole life together."  
"So what are you going to do tonight?"  
"Well, I didn't plan anything special. Kit it's coming over, I'll ask her if she want to stay for dinner."  
"I'm sorry baby, you sound a little bored."  
"It's ok, we'll spend the weekend together, I was thinking about to go to the beach with the others" Bette suggested.  
"Oh I like it! You know I love the sea. Can't wait!" she paused and then added "I love you, you know that?"  
She smiled. "I know, I love you too"  
The couple chattered a bit more and then hang up their phones.  
Tina sighed and took another deep breathe. The meeting time was close. She put on her jacket and exited her office. Mark was at the exit of the building waiting for the blonde. He was near a limousine.  
"After you" he opened the door and invited Tina to get in.

Kit arrived at the house and before she knocked at the door Bette opened it.  
"Thank God, you're here" she hugged her older sister.  
"Hey baby sis" she hugged her back and entered the house. "Where is my baby girl?  
"She right there, on the couch. She watching cartoons" she pointed her daughter.  
The aunt ran after her cute niece and hugged her. Then she turned to her younger sister. "So, baby sis! How are you doing?"  
"Oh God Kit, I'm so bored. I don't know what to do. Lately Tina's work became a huge pain in the ass. They always hold her back over her working hours."  
"Poor girl, I know you miss her. And she misses you as well."  
"Yeah" she smiled weakly. "I just... I'm starting to understand how she felt back in the days when I worked late..."  
"Come here" Kit invited her to sit on the couch, next to her.  
"Don't let this things get you down. You both have love in your lives and that's all that matters."  
"I know Kit, thanks" Bette eyes were filled with tears. She just wanted to hug her wife. "God, you should've been at The Planet and you're here"  
"Oh, shut up. Anything for my baby sis!"  
Bette smiled and then added: "Want to eat mexican?"  
"Sure, I'll order it"  
The two sisters ate dinner and chattered as they were cleaning up. It was nine and at that time Tina was supposed to meet the lender. She sighed as if she was the one that was having the meeting. Kit noticed it.  
"There's something wrong?"  
"Uh? Ah... No," she shook her head "I'm just thinking about the meeting Tina is having right now. I hope she won't be too nervous"  
"Tina is great. She will make it and she will be here with you as soon as she can."  
"Yep!" then she said proudly "You should see, Kit. They admire her and respect her."  
"Of course they do. She became one of the bests" Kit was proud of her sister in law as well.

Meanwhile Tina and Mark arrived at the hotel, where they were meeting the rich lawyer. There was something strange about him. He asked to be anonymous untill the day they would have met. And Tina was kinda curious about why he requested that.  
"Any clue on why he wanted to hide his name?" the blonde beauty asked.  
"I have no idea. Maybe is something linked to the press and he didn't want to be followed by some paparazzi or something like that" Mark promptly said. "Well I think we should announce we're here"  
The man and Tina headed to the reception. They told the receptionist their names and a porter led them to the table. "Please, have a sit"  
Both of them took a sit and waited for the man without a name. It was already half past nine. "He's late..." Tina uttered.  
"You know how rich people are" Mark giggled making Tina giggled as well. "Let's just wait"

Bette wanted to put Angie to bed but the little one didn't want to calm down. She tried to read her a bedtime story. It didn't work as well. Angie wanted to be with both her mommies. But Tina wasn't there. "Come on, baby. Mama T needed to stay a bit longer. She will be here as soon as she can. Please don't cry" she hugged her child. _God T. I can't stand watching our baby crying like this._  
"Hush, baby. Hush" she hugged her baby tighter as she started to sing to her a lullaby. It took several minutes to calm her down. Finally she fell asleep and so did Bette, holding her little girl in her arms.

Tina and Mark were still there, waiting for the man. Another half hour passed but there was no trace of him. The woman started to get upset. _Fucking lawyer. It's ten and we were supposed to meet a hour ago. _  
They waited more. It was nearly eleven now, and Mark muttered something.  
"This is-" Tina was starting to reply but something, or better, someone drawn her attention. _What the fuck? What is he doing here?_  
The man smirked and headed to their table.  
"Tina Kennard. Mark Welford. It's a pleasure to meet you here tonight" he sat down. "I hope you can accept my apology. There had been a little setback. But we're here now" he smirked again and looked at Tina. The woman was shocked and she looked as if she had seen a ghost.  
"Tina, are you okay?" Mark asked, a little concerned.  
She shook her head. "Yeah, sure. I think we should start to conclude the business we're here to discuss about" Tina added and crossed her hands. She wanted to appear confident and didn't want to let her astonishment to take the advantage.

Bette and Angie were still sleeping together. The brunette started to stretch and slowly opened her eyes. _Jesus, I fell asleep_. She sat up and trying to avoid to wake Angie up, exited the room and half-closed the door. _What time is it?_ She headed to her bedroom and looked at the alarm clock.  
Midnight.


	7. Chapter 7

The brunette couldn't sleep. She was on her bed tossing and turning. It was late at night and the tought of Tina out there drove her crazy. She jumped out of the bed and went downstairs to find something to distract herself. She tried to read the newspaper. Then she watched some silly programs on tv. In the meantime she picked up a bottle of wine and filled up her glass for three times. Feeling a little numb due to the wine, she finally fell asleep on the couch.  
A several minutes later, Tina entered her driveway with the car. She was home after a long and endless day at work. Sighing in relief she he reached the porch and took of her heels to avoid to make noise and wake up her daughter. She led herself in and immediatly noticed her beautiful wife, sleeping on their couch. Just a little after her eyes caught the bottle of wine on the coffe table. It was half empty. The blonde approached her sleeping wife and slowly kissed her on the temple.  
_God, she smells of wine. How much did she drink?_ "Baby I'm home, wake up and let's go to bed, okay? This couch is too uncomfortable" she whispered.  
Bette rubbed her face and slowly sat up. "Fuck, what time is it?"  
"It's... uh... It's 2 a.m."  
"What the fuck?" Bette muttered.  
"I know, baby. It's late. But the lawyer-" She cutted herself at the thought of who the lawyer really was. Then she kept talking. "But the lawyer had some disruption and he arrived two hours later"  
"Yes, fine" Bette said as she put a hand on her forehead. _Shit_. It ached. And she was kinda upset.  
"Baby, did you drink that?"  
"Yes. I did. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't calm down our daughter, because she wanted her mama T here with her. I couldn't stay here without doing anything it made me crazy." she sighed as she realized she was raising her voice. "Fuck, I'm sorry."  
"Don't be. You have all the rights to do this. I've been there, I remember"  
"What are you trying to say?"  
"I mean," Tina swallowed "that's not a judgemental. I just want to say that I know how it feels when your wife is at work while you're home and don't know what to do"  
Bette looked at Tina and remembered. "I know, you're right. Now I now how you felt. It's hideous"  
"It is. And baby I prom-"  
Her wife cutted her off. "Don't. Please Tina, don't do promises that you don't know you're going to keep"  
Tina was astonished. "What did you just say?"  
"Fuck, it came out wrongly." she raised her hands. "That's not what I meant. I was just saying... back in the days I made promises to you that I never managed to keep and now I know how difficult it is for you to do it. Even if you want to. I know sometimes work can be difficult to deal with"  
"I will not make a promise then, but I want to assure you that you and angie are my priorities, okay? Don't forget that. And please, don't drown your thoughts and feeling in wine. Please, don't do this. It killed me watching you on the couch with that bottle of wine next to you"  
"I know, sorry. I'm really sorry. I should've calm down and took a deep breathe. But the thought of you out there, it just... I don't know why, it drove me crazy. I missed you so much that it killed me. I don't know what happened today. I felt lonely and useless."  
"You're never useless. Don't say that. Never!" she cupped her face with tears in the eyes "I know how you've felt. I know and I understand. But please don't ever -ever- feel that way. You're perfect. You're awesome. You're the love of my life and you will never be useless."  
Bette just smiled and layed her head on Tina's shoulder. "I love you"  
"I love you too, baby" she sighed. "Why don't we go to sleep? I'll take the day off tomorrow. I'll work from home. There's nothing important to do at work, tomorrow. So we can be together, okay? Then like you said, we'll spend the weekend together at the beach with the others and it will be amazing."  
"Sounds like a plan" then Bette giggled. "And remember that you have to triple-make it up to me"  
"Triple, huh?" Tina raised her eyebrow.  
"Yep, triple, since you made me wait for two long nights and today I had to had tree cold showers!" she showed her pouty face.  
The beautiful blonde laughed. "Triple will be, then!"  
They led to their bedroom and jumped in bed. Both of them laying on their sides. Bette got closer and snuggled Tina from behind and soundly fell asleep in about few minutes. Tina smiled and then sighed thinking about the fact that the next day she would have talk to Bette about the 'mysterious man' she met at the hotel just a few hours before.

The day after Bette woke up early to bring Angie to school. She found Tina still sleeping when she came back home. She was exhausted. Bette loved the sight of her wife, sleeping. Her cheeks a little rosy and her hair messed up. That was so cute and kinda...sexy. Bette shook her head to come back to reality and pulled a hair lock behind Tina's ear. The smiled. A few minutes later she left the room and went downstairs to make breakfast.  
Tina was still in bed, she started to stretch and opened her eyes as she nocited the empty spot next to her. Then smiled when she saw Bette entering the room holding a tray in her hands.  
"Breakfast in bed" Bette winked.  
"Oh, that's amazing. I have to work late too often."  
"Don't you dare!" Bette pointed her.  
Tina laughed out loud. Then she said whispering "Thank you baby, you're such a wonderful wife"  
"I know I am" the brunette said proudly.  
"You and the word 'modesty' don't know each other, do you?"  
Bette chuckled. She leaned closer and kissed her on the lips. That was such a perfect way to wake up. Except for the fact that soon she was going to say Bette who was the lender and... it would have been a huge mess. Tina knew perfectly how Bette would've reacted and she was scared. But that was the time to tell her. She didn't want to wait. The earlier you do it, the earlier it ends. While Bette was still kissing her wife, Tina pulled out.  
"Babe, I need to tell you something"  
_Oh my God, she's going to kill me. Or maybe she's going to kill -him-. She will kill us both. But I didn't do anything so she'll probably understant. Oh, who am I kidding. This is Bette we're talking about. She will freak out. I know she will..._  
"ERIC? -That- Fucking Eric?"  
_I knew it._ Tina started to panick and wanted to calm Bette down. But how do you calm Bette down? You CAN'T calm Bette down.  
"B, please. Don't freak out."  
"Don't freak out? Are you out of your mind? Of course I freak out!"  
"But, baby, he-"  
Bette cutted her of. "He's going to die"  
"Bette!"  
"What?!"  
"Please, listen to me" she sighed. "There's no need to react that way"  
"Oh, there is. Believe me, there is."  
With that Bette exited the room, leaving her wife alone in their room. Speechless. _What the fuck?_

Bette reached the kitchen and resting her elbows on the counter started to fill her head with some memories that belonged to twelve years before.  
_"It's not my fault. We both fell in love with each other. I love her, she loves me. Deal with it. I didn't want it to end this way. But she's a grown up woman and she can make her own decisions. I'm sorry it means that you're going to suffer, but it's not my fault" a younger Bette said.  
"Of course it's your fault! Fuck you, Bette Porter. You and that fucking charm of yours. You stole my woman. She was and she -is- my woman. You're going to pay for this" Eric yelled and slammed his hand against Bette's office desk.  
"I didn't stole anything from you. Tina is not a thing that you buy, or stole or anything like that. She's a woman and she doesn't belong to anyone" Bette uttered.  
" . ." Eric muttered, tightening his fist. "Sooner or later, I'll come back and I will make her mine, again. Remember. Sooner or later. I will!"  
With that he exited the office, slamming the door behind him._


	8. Chapter 8

Bette tried to not think about what happened with Eric in the past. But the only thing she was capable to do was to think about how wonderful it would have been to be able to kill that son of a bitch. She had been able to get through it and to not think about what he said to her because several years passed since they both talked. So she just tought it was just a mere conversation and that he probably forgot about that. But now he was there. He came back, just as he said. He was there. And Bette would've done anything to protect her woman.  
Tina was still in their bedroom, afraid of what Bette was thinking. The last thing she wanted was to see her own wife in jail. As she decided to go downstairs to reach Bette, the brunette entered the room.  
"Babe, where are you going?" Tina asked.  
"I'm having a shower" she directly walked into the bathroom. Tina knew she was upset and that, above all, she was hiding something. She made her way to the bathroom to join her wife in the shower. She didn't wanted to talk about that at that moment. She just wanted to reconnect with her wife and try to calm her down. In her own way.  
She took off her pajamas and let herself slip into the shower, behind her wife. She pulled both her hands on Bette's waist. She loved the feeling of their naked bodies against each other's. The blonde slowly started to kiss her wife's back and massaged her belly. They both could feel the arousement.  
"I know we still have to talk, but I want to start the make up session, right now" Tina whispered in Bette's ear, rubbing her center against the brunette's butt, making her moan.  
"Just so you know, I-" she swallowed "Oh jesus" she stated as Tina started to caress her inner thigh.  
"You what?" Tina teased her.  
"I'm still upset... God!" Bette gasped. Tina kept teasing her.  
"So, you're telling me you're not in the mood?" she grabbed one of her breasts.  
"Oh, fuck that" the brunette turned her head on the side and started to kiss her wife. She could feel her center aching and burning.  
They were still one behind the other. Tina behind Bette with her breasts against her wife's back. Caressing her thigh and avoiding to reach the center. She loved teasing her wife that way. She wanted to know how much the brunette wanted her.  
"Tina... huh" Bette pulled her head back.  
"What baby, tell me what you want" she kept caressing her wife's mocha skin.  
"I- I want... Jeez, I want you..." she couldn't managed to finish any sentence "Please, stop teasing me. I need you to-"  
"You need me to what?"  
"Fuck me, T. Fuck me." she left a loud moan as she spread her legs.  
With that Tina finally reached the pulsing clit and she started to draw little circles on it. Bette's abdomen muscles retracted at the touch. Her breathe started to get heavier. "Inside, baby. I want you inside of me"  
Her wife did how she's been requested and she slowly entered her from behind with one finger, started to flip it slowly, in and out. Grabbing her wife's waist with the other hand. Then she added one more finger, then yet another.  
Bette left out another moan. This time even louder. "Oh God T... Ahhh"  
Tina kept penetrating her lover who finally reached her climax. She was shaking due to the jolt of pleasure her wife just gave to her. Her knees were weak. As she almost left herself slide down Tina turned her around and hold her tighter. After she managed to regain her breathe, she whispered in Tina's ear. "I don't think I can stand on my legs anymore"  
Tina chuckled. "I love to make Bette Porter feeling so weak!"  
"You surely know how to do it" she smirked.  
They hugged for several minutes and once Bette regained strenght in her legs, she pulled her lips on her wife's. As her tongue asked for entrance, Tina immediately opened her mouth letting her wife tongue play with hers. Both the women lost themselves kissing voraciously. Bette pulled Tina against the shower wall. She started to kiss her neck. Then down to her breasts. She licked her nipples, then her belly and slowly reached her wife's center. She bent down on her knees. As she started kissing and licking Tina's inner thighs and clutched her butt, the blonde almost lost her breathe.  
"Fuck, Oh fuck! Bette..." she squeezed Bette's shoulders. "Please!"  
The brunette reached the honey spot and started to lick it and suck it and than again lick it. Tina was close.  
"Baby, I'm gonna come... huh"  
Bette pulled out before her wife could reach her orgasm just to make it last longer. Then she started again and slowly entered her wife with two fingers. As she added another one, she bent them to reach Tina's G-Spot. She kept slipping her fingers, rapidly, with her thumb pressing on her clit. It took Tina a few seconds to finally reach the top of pleasure. "Sssshit!" she cried out, clutching two locks of Bette's hair with both of her hands.  
Bette looked up at her wife and smirked. She loved to see her wife's face when she made her come. Her cheeks red and her chest going up and down due to the fast breathing.  
That was just one of the three rounds. The two lovers kept making love to each other for other three times that morning.

After a long love-making session the two beauties decided to have breakfast at The Planet and meet their friends there. The road was silent but they both didn't avoid to exchange some teasy gazes remembering the hot sex they had early that morning. But then Tina broke the silence:  
"Bette, listen... About the meeting, I-"  
Bette cutted her off. "Let's talk about it at home. We'll enjoy our friends company without talking about what happened at the meeting yesterday, okay?" she didn't want to talk about it yet. She was still upset about that and knowing herself she could've said something that would've hurt Tina. So she just wanted to calm down a little bit.  
"Okay, that's fine."  
The couple arrived at the bar. Their friends were sitting at the usual table. Shane waved as she saw the lovers and invited them to join the group.  
As them both approached the table they sat down and looked at each other again. The same way they did in the car a few minutes before.  
"What's going on here?" Alice smirked. "You guys just got laid, didn't you?"  
Bette ignored her and Tina laughed. "How do you say that?" the blonde asked amused.  
"The way you touch each other. That's obvious!" Shane immediately added.  
"Thank you!" Alice mouthed to Shane and teased the two women. "Sooo, how's Bette in bed? Is she still in good shape? Or maybe Bette's old age is affecting your sexual life..."  
"Alice!" Tina muttered and then bursted out in laughter.  
Bette ignored her again and then gave her an evil-look. "You're lucky I'm not in the mood today, otherwise it would be a pleasure to take you to our house and throw you into the pool, again!" then she grinned.  
"You're not gonna do it again. Next time I will be prepared"  
"We'll see" Bette crossed her arms.

The group spent a few hours together, talking, laughing and enjoying their breakfast together, Kit and Helena joined them as well. They started talking about how bored Bette was the they before and making fun of her. Bette's sister then vowed. "Oh, baby girl! My baby sis almost lost her mind, yesterday" then laughed. "She also started to read LezGirls!"  
"Porter is going crazy" Alice slammed her hands on the table. She couldn't stop laughing.  
"Alice, stop it!" Tina said, but she was clearly amused as well. "My poor baby, she missed me"  
"You guys are going to pay for this" Bette gave them her famous pouty-face.  
They kept making fun of Bette until Helena asked: "Anyway, how did the dinner go?"  
Both, Tina and Bette gazed into each other's eyes. They didn't know what to say. "Uh... Well." Tina stammered.  
"The lender was Eric Martin" Bette then decided to admit. Then she gasped at the thought of that man near her woman.  
"Eric?" Alice and Shande said at the same time. Shocked.  
Alice then panicked. "Oh my God! Oh my fucking God! Bette?!"  
"I know!" Bette uttered. She knew what her friend was trying to say. Bette told Shane and her what happened twelve years ago in her office and what Eric said to her that day. But most important thing: she didn't tell it to Tina.  
"Wh- What are you guys talking about?" Tina questioned.  
"T, let's go home. I need to tell you something" she stood up and made her way to the exit. Tina was still puzzled. She saluted her friends and followed her wife.  
"What the fuck happened?" she reached Bette. "Bette!"  
"Listen, I'm going to tell you everything once we got home, okay?" they both got in the car. "I don't want to talk about something that upsets me and risk to kill us both crashing the car against something" she sighed and started the car. _Sorry baby, I'm being such an asshole._ Then she turned to face Tina and placed one hand on her cheek and smiled.  
Tina didn't know what was going on. But she surely knew that something happened between Bette and Eric. That little touch from Bette managed to reassure her a bit. The only thing she could do at that moment was to nod and wait to come back home.

They finally arrived, once enterend the living room they both sat on the couch. Sitting right next to each other. Bette was looking down at the floor. Tina stared at ther wife. _This is going to be hard_. Tina took Bette's hand in hers and waited her to speak.  
"I want to start saying that I'm sorry for freaking out. I over-reacted, but maybe you will understand once I have told you what happened several years ago" Bette finally spoke. She told Tina about the fight Eric and she had in her office and how afraid she was that he might have been come back to take Tina away from her. Then she added: "Given what he said to me, I would be happy if you decline his offer"  
"What?" Tina was flabbergasted "Are you serious? Do you realize what are you asking me right now?  
"Yes, and I think you should do it"  
"Bette, you can't tell me what I should or what I should not do, okay? This is my job. I just can't decline an offer because your obsessions and paranoia made you decide that I have to. And first of all, I'm frankly shocked that you hid me such a thing for about twelve years. I mean, really. Thank you Bette for not talking to me, again. And for hiding something to me, again!"  
_Ouch. That hurt. _Bette pulled a strock of hair behind her ear. "Fuck, I didn't even think about that anymore, since yesterday. Since he popped out, again. I thought it wasn't important and that he didn't mean that"  
"Of course it -is- important" Tina sat up. "When it comes to something about me and you. Of course it is important. And I would like that my wife, who should be the one to tell me everything, actually -do- tell me everything."  
Bette sat still. "Okay, you're right. I'm sorry about that. But we're not talking about that right now. I'm just saying that I don't want that man near you or to have any contacts with you"  
"Listen, Bette. We can't decline his offer. Mark already took it."  
"Then quit your job"  
"You're kidding. Right?"  
"I-" Bette started to talk but Tina cutted her off.  
"You what, Bette? You can't tell me to quit my job, just because my ex just popped out from God knows where. And most important thing, you can't ask me to quit my job, expecially now when we're going to have a baby and you don't have a job" she sat down again. "How are we supposed to live without money. We need money. And just so you know. We're not going to see each other every fucking day. He's just the lender, he's not going to be there every day."  
"Yes, okay, you're right. You need your job and I can't ask you to quit your job. But you're still going to have contact with him and I can't take it. I just can't."  
"Fuck, Bette!" Tina yelled. The she realize she was over-reacting. She sighed. "I'm sorry..."  
"It's okay, I just... I just don't like the idea of him next to you. I'm trying to talk honestly with you and telling about how I feel about this. And I'm scared, actually. If I think about the things he said to me, I can't help but freak out. What if he touch you? -And worse- What if he hurt you?"  
"Bette, baby," Tina understood what Bette's point was. "it's going to be fine. There's the crew. There's Mark. I won't be alone on set. He won't hurt me. Okay? He won't. But please, don't ask me to quit my job. You know how hard I worked to reach this big position"  
Bette took a deep breathe. "I know, I'm sorry. But I don't trust him"  
"Trust me, then. Trust me when I say that nothing's gonna happen. Can you do it?" she caressed her cheek "Babe?"  
"I'll try..." she smiled. "But please... Please, if something seems to go wrong, please tell me"  
"Of course I will, babe"  
They both hugged.


	9. Chapter 9

The couple stood there, hugging each other and talking. Tina was happy about the changes they both went through those years. In the past they did huge mistakes, just because they took the chances to avoid to talk to each other about their own feelings and fears. That's why they fell apart and things didn't work out. But finally they were stronger than ever. They talked about Eric that morning. And even if Bette was still concerned about it, she decided to let Tina deal with it. She trusted her wife. She knew there was nothing to worry about. And that, after all, she was right. Tina would've been sorrounded by the crew and Mark. Eric shouldn't have been able to touch her or hurt her.  
They spent the whole afternoon together. Talking and talking. After all those years they were finally capable of saying the truth and admitting their own fears, no matter what it was about. For Bette that was a big step. She usually kept inside her own thoughts. But now, she was aware that to make things work perfectly, she had to talk to Tina everytime there were the need and the chance to do it.  
After picking Angie at the pre-school they came back home and decided to enjoy each other's company. How beautiful was that? The three of them, finally under the same roof. Living together, sharing the same house. Angie was happier than ever. She loved seeing her mothers loving each other like that. At the beginning that was a new thing for her. She wasn't used to see them acting like that but it just felt so right. Like if that has always been like that. No more back and forth from one house to another. It was perfect.  
It was just 'home'.

"How's school been, sweetie?" Tina asked to her daughter.  
"Good! We made drawings. I made one with you, mama B and me." she opened her bag and showed it to her. "Look!"  
"Ohhh, good girl. That's beautiful" her mother said, admiring her baby's piece-of-art. "Babe, come here! Look" she handed the drawing to Bette.  
"Woooow! You're absolutely my favourite artist, Angie. This is amazing!" the brunette said kissing Angie's forehead.  
Tina smiled. She loved watching Bette interact with their daughter. There was a side of Bette that showed up only when she was with Angie. That was so damn cute.  
"I'm going to put it here, okay? This way everyone will be able to see your great work!" she got close the fridge and stiked the drawing on it. She was so proud of her baby.  
"Thank you mommieees!" the baby said amused. She hugged them and ran into the living room, sittin on the couch. "Can I watch some cartoons? Can I? Mommies can I?"  
Her mothers chuckled. "Sure baby, mama B and I will be right there, in the kitchen. We're making dinner"  
"God, she's so cute" Bette smiled. "I've loved this. Staying with you at home. Talking and enjoying your company" she said as they entered the kitchen. "and I love being here with you and Angie. This is what we always dreamed of. Having a family and living happily in our house"  
"I love it too, Bette. Finally it became reality and this makes me so happy."  
"So am I, babe" she hugged her wife. "I love you"  
"I love you too"

The family spent the rest of the evening together. After eating dinner the three of them sat on the couch in the living room and watched a family movie. The sight of them together. It was a clear and pure rapresentation of love, commitment, cuteness and happiness. The little one fell asleep on their laps. Both of them smiled looking at their creation and at the thought of the arrival of another one.

**The Weekend **

The weekend finally arrived. The girls was going to the beach and staying at Helena's who bought a house near the sea on the West Coast. She was happy to host her friends and she got plenty of rooms for all of them.  
There were Alice, Shane, Molly, Kit. Sonny decided to stay in WeHo to take care of The Planet. After several minutes Bette, Tina and Angie joined the group. Helena ran as she heard the door bell. "Welcome here, girls!" she greeted and hugged them.  
Without any waste of time, everyone immediately got ready to go to the beach. They put on their favourite swimsuits and led to the beach near Helena's house. There were nothing better than enjoying the sun and the sea together.  
Summer had finally arrived.

"Yayyyy!" Angie shouted as they arrived. "The saaaand! I want to build sandcastles" she started jumping and running back and forth.  
"Angie, don't run," Bette vowed. "come here. We need to spread some sunscreen on your skin first!"  
"Noooo" the baby whined.  
"Angelica!" Bette yelled back. "Come on! Sunscreen first and then you can play"

At that, the baby stopped and ran back to her mother. She knew that when Bette spelled her entire name she was going to be in trouble if she decided to disobey to her mother.

"Here I am, mommy!"  
"Good girl" she started to spread the sunscreen on her baby's skin. Even if Angie's and hers skin was darker and in some ways there was no need to use a strong sunscreen, she wanted to be sure that their skin was protected by UV rays.  
"Are mama T and you going to do it as well?"  
"What, Boo?"  
"Use the sunscreen."  
"Yes, baby. Expecially mama T. Her skin is way too delicate"  
"Are you spreading the sunscreen on her skin?"  
"Yes, she loves it when I take care of her skin" the brunette grinned looking at her wife. She winked.  
Tina laughed and gave her wife a 'stop it' look. She knew that Bette's was a way to tease her.  
"Here we go," Bette smeared away some sunscreen from Angie's nose and kissed it. "now you can go!"  
"Thanks mommyyyy" she grabbed some blades and buckets. As she approached the bank she started her buildings.  
"Sweetie, don't go too far, okay? Just stay there and make sure to be in our visual field" Tina recommended.  
"Yeh, mama!" the baby vowed without taking her eyes off the sand dune she was building.  
"It's your turn now" Bette said holding her wife hand and pulled her closer making her sitting in front of her with Tina's back against her she started to spread the lotion on her shoulders Tina left out a light moan.  
"You guys need to stop that, if you don't wanna end up having sex on the beach in front of us" Alice teased the couple. Then pointed at Angie. "and your daughter"  
"Well, it's not a bad thing, Alice. It could be usefull if you want to learn something new" Bette teased back.  
"Yeh, yeh... I don't think I need any lesson from you, Porter!"  
"Yeah, you're still a newbie, actually. My lessons are for advanced levels."  
"You asshole!" Alice tried not to laugh, but she clearly didn't make it and threw a beach towel and hit Bette with it, making the couple laugh as well.  
"You two looks like Tom & Jerry!" Kit admonished. "You just can't stop to tease each other. Angie is more obedient and quiter then you both"  
Bette uttered: "Alice is surely Tom! I am Jerry"  
"What?!" Alice questioned.  
"Well, Alice. Jerry is smarter and I am smarter. There's no way you can be Jerry. You are absolutely Tom"  
"Smart-ass!"  
"See? I am a _smart_-ass." she said, with emphasis on the word 'smart'. "You just admitted it."  
"Tina, I'm going to kill your wife, someday."  
"Oh God, it seems like I have three children" Tina laughed. "With the exception that Angie is the adult one"  
"Amen to that!" Kit added.

The weekend started in a funny way as only Bette and Alice can make it possible. Those two were such a tease but the bond between them was something that few people can share. Theirs was a true and strong friendship. The group loved taking part at their pseudo-spats, that was one of the funniest things.  
That was just the beginning of two days of laughter and fun.


	10. Chapter 10

After spending some good time at the beach, the group of friends decided to come back at the house and planned a BBQ in the backyard, near the pool. It was almost seven and a gorgeous sunset was showing up.  
That was such a wonderful sight.  
Bette was helping Shane preparing some meat for the barbecue while the others were talking just a few steps far from them. Angie was there too, playing with Alice.

"So, when are we going to have the pleasure to see Bette pregnant?" Helena asked.  
"Well, I guess we're doing the insemination very soon. Next week, maybe" Tina admitted, gazing at her wife, who smiled at her.  
"Oh my God, I can't wait to see my baby sis pregnant" Kit got tears in her eyes. "You girls totally deserve this"  
"Thank you Kit, you're so sweet" the blonde said. "I can't wait it either, she will look amazing"  
"And fat!" Bette said mocking herself without turning around, since she was busy setting things up for the barbecue.  
The women laughed. "Fatty Porter" Alice teased.  
"Alice, remember the pool" Bette uttered.  
"Mph, I'm not afraid of you."  
"We'll see... Here we go" she said as she placed some meat on the embers. She rubbed her hands and then took a sit next to Tina. Then she placed a light kiss on her wife's shoulder. Tina smiled at her. She loved those little gestures from Bette.  
Their friends noticed their lovely interaction and Helena expressed her admiration for the couple, "God, you two are so cute together".

After dinner, Bette and Tina decided it was time for Angie to go to bed. They putted her down in Kit's room. The woman offered to take care of her just so the couple could have a little time for themselves, alone.  
As they returned to the backyard, Alice stated it was time for one of her famous games. "You guys! I think this is time for a game"  
"Oh God Alice, don't tell me you wanna play 'I never', please" Bette begged.  
The group laughed, but apparently Helena didn't know what they were talking about. "What? What's wrong with that game?"  
"That's how everyone found out about us" Tina admitted with a shy smile.  
"Well, actually, it's because Alice is a big mouth" Bette added.  
Alice was stunned. "Oh well, Porter. If it wasn't for me, I think you two would've still been having an affair. I just made it easier for you"  
"Okay, she has a good point, babe" Tina chuckled.  
Bette rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I'm still not playing this stupid game"  
"Truth or dare, then!" Alice proposed.  
Bette gave her a look like 'fuck no'.  
"Come on, Porter! I promise, no one will be going to run around naked"  
"Okay, fine."

The women sat in circle on the ground. Alice was excited, just like a child who was facing a mountain of candies "Yay, this is great" she clapped her hands. "I'll go first. Shane: truth or dare?"  
"Truth"  
"Is it true that this is the very first time you've been faithful to someone?"  
"It is" she smiled and gazed at Molly. They immediately were sorrounded by tons of 'awwws'.  
Then Shane said: "Okay, it's Kit's turn now. Truth or dare?"  
"Uhmmm, I'd say: truth"  
"Did you ever sleep with a woman?"  
There had been a little silence then she spoke: "Yes".  
Everyone went 'whoaaaa?'. Bette was clearly shocked. "Oh God!"  
"Wait, wait, wait" Kit laughed. "You asked me if I ever slept with a woman, and my answer is 'Yes'. But I never had sex with one"  
"Yeh, but now we want to know who the woman was?" Alice was being noisy as usual.  
"Papi" as she said her name everyone started laughing. "Oh come on, she just took me home, I was devastated because of Angus. She took care of me. She also tried to go down on me, but what can I say... I like men. It didn't work... you know" everyone laughed even harder at that statement.  
Kit blushed then continued the game, "Alice?"  
"Truth"  
"Did you ever managed to keep your mouth shout?" everyone burst out in laugher after that question.  
"Kit?!" Alice said, pretending to be hurt. "Don't you dare treat me like that. This is mean. I won't answer to your question!"  
The group couldn't stop laughing. Bette had tears in her eyes. "Jesus, that was good, Kit!"  
"Oh, Porter, it's your turn, now. I'd suggest you not to laugh too much!"  
Before she could ask the famous 'truth or dare?' Helena vowed. "I want someone to choose 'dare' sometimes. Come on!"  
"Well, fine. I'd say dare, then" Bette said, but somehow she wanted to take it back, because she just realized the one who was going to choose her 'dare' was Alice. And that wasn't going to be good.  
Alice had a ear-to-ear grin. "Bette... I dare you to... kiss me"  
"Hell no!" Bette refused categorically.  
Tina started to laugh. Shane slapped Alice's shoulder amused. "Nice one, buddy"  
"So, Bette? I'm still waiting" Alice teased.  
"No way!"  
"Come on babe, these are the rules" Tina giggled.  
"What the fuck," she was shocked. "Tee?"  
Tina couldn't help but laugh. "Come on, you said kissing isn't cheating. And plus, this is a game. Don't worry"  
"Fine" Bette got up on her knees and got closer to Alice.  
She cupped her face and slowly gave her a peck on her lips and quickly pulled out.  
"Oh come on, Porter! That's not a kiss" Shane teased.  
'_Jesus_' Bette's lips met Alice's again. This time it was a deeper kiss. Her tongue asked for entrance and Alice immediately opened her mouth.  
The kiss lasted a few seconds.  
Tina watched her wife kissing Alice. Another woman. At first she thought she could lost her own mind due to jealousy.  
But, actually, that was kinda hot.  
Then she cleared her throat just because the kiss was lasting a bit too much for her taste.  
Bette pulled out, she had a little smug on her face and returned to sit in her spot. Next to Tina.  
"Holy fucking Jesus" Alice was dazed. "I'm going to play this game more often... "  
"Don't flatter youself, Alice. This is the first and the last time it happened."  
Then she added: "I forgot how good your kisses were... Sorry Tina"  
Tina chuckled. "Don't worry Alice. I know, my wife's kisses are amazing"  
"Tee, don't second her, please."  
"Baby, I'm just speaking the truth" she winked.

The girls continued playing Alice's silly games for another hour, then headed to their respective rooms, exhausted by the long and exciting day they spent together. Anyhow it wasn't the end of the funny weekend.  
They had one more day and it was going to be even funnier than the one just ended.

"Our friends are the craziest" Tina smiled, entering the room.  
"Expecially Alice" Bette replied.  
The blonde chuckled, "I can't believe she asked you to kiss her"  
"I can't believe you left me kiss her"  
"Just because I knew it was a game..." Tina was going to say something more but stopped herself.  
"And?"  
"And... it was kinda hot, actually"  
"Hot, how?"  
"I don't know..." she got closer sliding her hands under Bette's tank top "It was kinda hypnotizing watching you kissing..." she led her lips nearby her ear and whispered "that tongue... God, that tongue"  
Bette could feel the arousement increasing. "Are you trying to start something, aren't you?" chills down her spine.  
"What makes you think that?" she squeezed her hips.  
Bette gasped and kissed Tina. The kiss became more urgent as Tina started rubbing her body against Bette's. The brunette grabbed Tina's waist and carried her onto the bed, letting herself fall down right on top of her.

They made sex the whole night.  
Hopefully their friends didn't hear Tina's shouting...  
Both of them woke up still naked. Cuddling.  
They loved the feeling of their naked flashes against each other's.  
"Good morning" Bette whispered, still hugging Tina from behind.  
"Morning" Tina smiled and took her wife's hand and kissed it.  
"I'm still exhausted from our love-making session."  
"You're getting older, hey Porter" Tina joked.  
"No way!" she turned Tina over and made herself lay down on top of her. "And I'm going to demonstrate it to you, right -kiss- now -another kiss-"  
Tina lost herself in the kiss. A deep and wet kiss.  
Bette immediately moved her hand down, to the blonde's already wet spot. Tina moaned and let out a quite loud 'Fuck'.  
The couple was about to start another round when they heard a light knock on the door. "Mommies"  
"Our baby has the best timing" Bette sighed. "Yes, baby, just a second" Bette voice was still quite low due to the arousement, Angie didn't hear her.  
"Mommieeees?"  
Shane, who was walking across the hallway, noticed Angie. "Hey kiddo, what's up?"  
"I heard mama saying a bad word"  
"Oh," Shane giggled, supposing what it was that brought one of her mommies to say a bad word "What if we go downstairs and wait for your mommies there?"  
"Kay"

"Was that Shane?" Tina whispered.  
"I think so."  
"Let's go, I guess we should postpone this to another time"  
"mhmmm" Bette muttered in disagreement, burying her head in Tina's neck.  
"Come on lazy ass... Even because I think you're too old, you wouldn't have been able to do it anyway."  
"Hey!"  
Tina laughed and ran away before Bette could grab her.


	11. Chapter 11

The gang was in the kitchen when Bette and Tina led in to join them for breakfast. They had that famous 'I fucked all night' look and, obviously, Alice immediately noticed it and couldn't help it, she teased the two women.

"You guys totally can't take your hands from each other, that's disgusting"  
"I don't know what you're talking about" Bette pretended to be struck with amazement.  
"Oh, tell it to the marines! We heard you"  
"Mph!" Bette ignored her and sat at the table, fixing two cups of coffee. She handed one to Tina and gave her a malicious gaze. Their interaction was soon interrupted by their baby's voice.  
"Mama, were you angry this morning?" Angie asked Tina.  
"No, baby, why?"  
"I heard you screaming a bad word"  
Tina eyes wide open, Bette almost choked on her coffee.  
"Ah, well... ah..." the blonde gave a 'help me' look at her wife.  
"Huh, no baby, your mama was hurting because I'm a clumsy and I hit her with my elbow while I was having a bad dream..." she said with nonchalance.  
The group burst out in laughter.  
"Oh yeah, sure, you surely hit her but I doubt you did it with your elbow" Shane laughed.  
"Shut up!" Tina blushed.  
Angie, of course, fell for it. "Awww, mama got a boo-boo"  
"Yeah, come here and give me a healing-kiss" Angie got closer and kissed Tina on her cheek then she approached Bette.  
"A healing-kiss for mama B too, because she was having a bad dream"  
"Owww, my sweet little monkey" Bette hugged her.  
"Seriously, you guys need to be careful" Kit admonished, she was amused though.  
"Jesus..." Bette rolled her eyes and rested her chin on her hand, then she looked at Tina, who gave her a 'what?' look.  
The brunette mouthed, 'I told you not to be too loud'.  
"So now it's my fault?"  
Bette turned her head around and laughed.

They started the day laughing, there was nothing better than that.  
After breakfast, they headed to the beach, again. The weather was even better than the day before. The women did their 'sunscreen-routine' and sat down on their beach towel, enjoying the warm sun.

Bette and Tina were sitting side by side. They never left space between them when they were in the same room or spot.  
"You two are like you've been glued together" Alice said.  
"We have to mend almost five years of breaking up" Bette uttered, leaning an arm around Tina's shoulders. As she did that, the blonde leaned her head into Bette's neck.  
"Yuck!" Alice rolled over letting herself lay down on her chest.  
"Mommy!" Angie took her mother's hand trying to pull her up.  
"What, baby?"  
"Come with me, I want to build sandcastles with you, please mommy"  
"Sure, sweetie.

Go pick up your bucket, I'll be right there"  
The little girl, excited, grabbed the stuff and waited for her mother.  
"I'll go with there for a while", Bette smiled and gave a light peck on Tina's temple.  
"Have fun, baby."

Tina admired that beautiful sight.  
The sight of her wife and her baby, playing together. Nothing could compare that. The way Bette acted when she was with their daughter. She could feel the incredibly connection. Even if Angie wasn't her byological daughter, they were extremely and in any kind of way 'connected'.  
She could even see some Bette's manners in Angie.  
The way she slept. The way she showed her pout face. The way she always managed to argue her convinctions. Even if she was still a baby, she already had her strict convintions. One of the things she always loved about Bette.  
She couldn't help but smile and couldn't stop staring at them.  
The blonde didn't even realize she had been stared herself. She turned around and noticed her friends looking at her.  
Everyone smiled and chuckled.  
"You're goggling, honey" Kit said.  
Tina immediately blushed. "Well," she pointed at Bette and Angie "Look at them... that's what I call perfection"  
She was teary. Those was happy tears. Her heart filled with proud.  
She was so proud to have such beautiful gift in her life.

"Hey, Tee?" Bette vowed. She noticed they were staring at them.  
"Wanna go for a swim?"  
"Sure, babe!" she gazed at her friends, "Want to join us?".  
"Go ahead, we'll follow you" Shane replied.

Bette, Tina and Angie approached the seashore.  
The little one started to ran back and forth, everytime the water came closer to her feet. As if that was a kind of catch game.  
As soo as the water touched Bette's feet, the woman frozen.  
"Jesus!"  
"What? Don't tell me you changed your mind" Tina bantered.  
"Of course not, that was just a momentary thing"  
"Fine, after you then" Tina left out another banter.  
"Huh, no... no no, after you... my beautiful wife" she pretended to be a gentlewoman. Actually the water was fucking cold and she hadn't the courage to dive into it.  
Before Bette knew, Tina quickly dived into water.

Splashes hitted Bette, who gasped. "Freaking frack!" she avoided to curse, since her daughter was there.  
"Come on, honey. The water is awesome."  
"Yeah, sure" she rolled her eyes.  
"You are the one who asked me to go for a swim, and suddenly you don't want to?"  
"The water, is -mouthing- cold!" she finally admitted it.  
Tina left out a huge laugh at her wife's statement.  
She started to splash her. "Come on, before I'll get you..."  
'_Admitting it wasn't a good idea_', Bette thought. She started to run.  
The blonde came out the water and started to chase her.  
"Come here, Bette Porter!"  
Angie started to giggle and joined her mothers.

The group of women, that were still on their towels, enjoyed the show.  
They couldn't stop laughind. Seeing Bette that vurnerable was one of the rarest things ever and that's was hilarious.  
They laughed even harder when, finally, Tina managed to get Bette into the water. Or better: pushed.

Bette's head showed out water and gave Tina an evil look.  
She stood there, without moving, for a while just to get used to the cold water.  
Tina laughter increased as she saw her wife's expression.  
"Baby, you —" she couldn't talk, she was laughing hard. "Your face is priceless"  
Bette wanted to pretend to be irritated but she just couldn't. Watching her wife laughing was one of the best things ever. So she laughed as well.  
Their friends waited a little while before joining the cute family.

All of them spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach and a couple of hours later, they headed to the house for dinner.  
The weekend was coming to an end and Bette's concern about the day after was starting to show up. It even got worse when, somehow, they found themselves talking about which of them had any experiences with men.  
"I've only been with men in my early years at college" Bette admitted. "Then I started to show some interest in one of my professors: Danica Palmer"  
"Same here" Helena added.  
The group of girls talked about their experiences and when Tina started to talk about herself, she unconsciously said his name: Eric.  
"Fuck" Bette whispered.  
"Babe, I'm —" Tina wanted to apology, but Bette cutted her off.  
"Don't worry Tee, it's okay." she smiled weakly.

Of course, it was not. And Tina knew it.  
The family exchanged goodbyes with their friends and thanked eveyone for the amazing weekend spent together. They got in the car and headed home.  
The couple didn't talk much during the ride home.  
Tina knew there was something else, about Eric, that was bothering her wife but she just waited to get home to talk.

They got home and as soon as they opened the front door, Bette led into the main bedroom, without any hesitation. No words uttered.  
Tina puttered their daughter to bed and headed to the room.

She saw Bette, sitting on her side of the bed. She knew she was struggling inside.  
She got closer, placing herself between the brunette's legs.  
"Talk to me" she said, cupping her face.  
Bette closed her eyes. She sighed.  
"Baby, please, don't shut me out. You promised... you promised we were going to tell each other everything, no matter what" she caressed her jawbone. "Bette"  
Bette slowly shook her head. "Please, please... I don't want you to go there, tomorrow. Please... I'm begging you... Please, Tee"  
Tina understood her wife's concern but she was clearly irritated.  
"Bette, I thought we got through this. You seemed to be okay with it... What else happened now?"  
"I just... I don't want you to meet him. Please, Tina."  
"No, Bette" she started pacing. "You can't ask me this! You can't. What is it? You're afraid of what, Bette? Of me, going back to men, or what? Talk... tell me what there is into your mind that bothers you that much to make you ask me something like that"  
"I —" the brunette's breathe started to pant. She wanted to say something but she couldn't. Her breathe became more and more labored.  
She was having a panick attack.  
"You wha —" Tina was giving Bette her back, she didn't realize what was going on until she turned around. "Baby, what's going on?" she finally knew what was going on with her wife and sat next to her. "Baby you need to calm down okay? You need to calm down... Please, honey do this for me... Take a deep breathe" she cupped Bette's face, her breathe was more constrained. She led her head to her chest. "Listen to my breathe, follow my breathe, okay?

Follow it... try to follow my breathe" tears falling down Tina's cheeks. "Baby, please... I promise I won't get upset, we can talk... you can tell me everything, just breathe"  
As she listened the blonde's words, she had been able to take a deep breathe that was capable to restore her natural breathe. She slowly started to feel better.  
"Good, baby... you're doing great" she hugged her. "God, you scared the hell out of me. Don't do anything like this ever again" she cried without breaking the hug.  
"I- I'm sorry..." Bette managed to say. Her breathe still a little discontinuous.  
"You don't need to be sorry" she cupped her face. "Now, do you want to tell me what is it that bothers you this much?"  
"Remember when a few days ago I told you about what he said to me that day?"  
"Go ahead."  
"Well, a few days later he came back..."

_"St- stop it, you asshole!"  
"What? Where did the almighty Bette Porter go, huh?"  
"Stop it!" a younger Bette tried to escape from his grip. "Stop, you're hurting me"  
"Oh, that's only the beginning, my dear!"  
Eric grabbed her waist with force and pulled her back against the wall.  
The woman tried to get rid of him, but he was too strong.  
He didn't stop laughing. An evil, scaring laughter.  
"Please, you're hurting me, don't do this."  
"Shut the fuck up, you dirty dyke!" he started to rub his body against her. "I will show you how is it to be with a real man"  
"Sto —" she gasped as he ripped up her skirt. "Stop... God, please!"  
The woman couldn't help it but cry out loud.  
She was shaking.  
His hand roaming around her inner thigh..._

"Oh God, please... Stop, honey stop" Tina begged her. She couldn't bear it. She was crying.

Her hands on her mouth. "Did he... did he" she swallowed. "You know..." she wanted to know if he, actually, did rape her. Her heart full of hope. She hoped it didn't happened.  
Bette sighed and stared at the ground.  
The silence spoke for her.  
The blonde led her wife into a hug. Bette could hear her sobbing.  
She left some tears leave her eyes.  
"Why, why didn't you tell me this the other day?"  
"Because I thought it was too much for you... to hear all these things at one time"  
"You should've told me back in the day, you should've told me" she started to shake. "This is insane, you... should've reported him. He should be in jail!" her eyes burning in anger. "Fuck" she grabbed her own head with her hands.  
"Baby, that's all in the past..."  
"The hell it's not! Bette! The memory of what he did to you is still here..."  
"Yes, but... this is not about me, right now. I am safe. I'm fine. What concerns me is the fact the you'll have to see him for so many days... I'm scared... You undrestand, now? Can you understand why I'm so fucking scared? I can't live with this fucking fear that he could hurt you..."  
"Fuck! What am I supposed to do?"  
"Quit your job" Bette pleased, again.  
"I can't... Bette, I just can't"  
Bette started sobbing.  
"Baby, look at me..."

she placed a finger under her chin and turned Bette's face to look at her. "As I said the other day... It will be alright. I will be fine. I can't quit my job. I need this job and you know that... If I could I would find another way to get the funding for the project, but Mark decided, I can't do anything... Bette, please"  
The brunette didn't say anything. She just looked into her wife's eyes. She knew she was right. She knew she needed that job. But she also knew that Eric was possibly going to hurt her and she couldn't think about it.  
"Please, stay with the crew... stay with Mark, and lock your office door when you're alone, please" she was shacking.  
"I will, baby, now lay down"  
Both of them left themselves fall into the bed.  
Tina cuddled her from behind and caressed her abdomen, trying to calm her down. Tina couldn't stop the increasing rage she was feeling inside, thinking about what that monster did to the love of her life. She wanted to do something, but at that moment, she couldn't do anything.  
She just kept holding her.

A little while later, the couple fell into a deep sleep guided by the sound of each other's breathing.


	12. Chapter 12

A few days passed since the two women talked about what happened in the past.  
They didn't bring that argument out since then.  
It hurt both of them, in two different ways.  
Tina, she hated him for what he did to her wife, but she also was upset with Bette, who kept her in the dark.  
She just couldn't understand why she did it.  
As far as Bette was concerned, she didn't do anything wrong.  
"Why didn't you tell me?"  
"I just wanted to protect you."  
That was Bette's response, everytime Tina tried to talk about it.  
Then there only was silence.

Tina did as Bette asked her. She just tried to avoid to be alone with Eric, eventhough there weren't lot of chances to meet each other.  
She tried to talk with Mark about him. She didn't say anything about what he did to Bette, but she just hoped that maybe Mark would decline the offer knowing that she wasn't feeling comfortable with him staying there.  
Of course, he didn't accept that.  
Fortunately, he had been busy for some kind of cases, this kept him away from the set. And everytime he managed to be there, they never talked. Tina always tried to stay away from him.  
At least things seemed to be fine.  
Until that day.

"Catie, make sure to schedule the meeting with the casting producer at five" Tina asked, from her office.  
"Sure, Tina. Need anything else?"  
"No, thanks, you can leave for lunch if you want."  
"Fine, see you later!"

The studio was almost empty. Most of the crew was out for lunch. Tina was busy getting some paperworks done, when she heard her office door opening. '_Shit, I forgot to lock it_'  
"Catie, you know, I always said you have to knock before gettin' in" Tina said, looking at the papers.  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I should have knocked" that wasn't Catie's voice.  
Tina stopped writing as she heard the voice, she kept looking down at her paperworks, then lifted her head. "Eric?"  
"I thought you could be hungry, so I brought you some food if it doesn't bother you..."  
"Actually, I already had lunch, thanks" she tried to rid of him.  
She hated that bastard who was just a few centimeters afar from her.  
"Oh, I see... too bad, well how's everything going?" he sat down in the chair that was in front of the desk, without asking any permission.  
The nerve he had.  
"Listen... I really need to get these paperworks done, so if you don't mind" Tina tried to let him understand that he wasn't wanted there.  
He stood up, again and crossed his arms, "Fine, Mrs. Porter-Kennard..." he said, staring at some photos of her with Bette and Angie, that was scattered here and there in the office.  
He always had that smug smile on his face. That was irritating.  
"Maybe we can talk later, I will be here all day long" he exited the office, without letting her say anything.

That same day, Bette had the brilliant idea to bring some food to Tina, at work, so they could eat together. The brunette entered the studios and as soon as she approached the hallway Eric popped out.  
Their eyes met, he noticed the bag of food Bette was carrying and smirked, "Oh, she already had lunch" then he quickly passed her.  
Bette, stood there for a little while... she realized he just exited Tina's office.  
She panicked and started to run forward the office.  
"I told you to lock the door!" she said as she stepped in.  
"Fuck, Bette! You scared the hell out of me!"  
"That makes two of us!" she was upset. "I just... I just met that fucking bastard, who told me 'oh she just had lunch'... What the fuck does that mean? Are you having lunch with him, now?"  
"What? Bette, are you out of your mind?"  
"So, what is it?"  
"He... he came into my office -unannounced- and brought some lunch... and I said I already had lunch, that's all"  
"Yes, but you still didn't lock the fucking door"  
"Jesus, I forgot, okay?"  
"Try not to forget, then!"  
Both of them looked at each other and sighed.  
Then Tina added, "Look, I know how concerned you are, but believe there is no reason to react this way, we barely talk to each other".  
Bette cutted her off. "Oh yeah, and he walks into your office"  
"Jesus, cut me some slack! This has been an isolated case, just because I've been a little busy doing my job and I forgot to lock the door"  
"No, I will not cut you come slack, when it comes to your safety!"  
"Did you come here to eat lunch with me or to fucking lecture me?"  
Bette tightened her lips together. She tried to calm down a little and pulled out the food from the bag. The two women never lost eyes contact.  
"I'm sorry" Tina admitted.  
Bette didn't say anything, she just looked at her.  
"You're right, after what happened, you have every right to react this way, I just want you to know that I'm able to take care of myself. I'm safe here, as long as I am with the others... He won't hurt me."  
"But he could've happened right a few minutes ago, Tee. You were alone, in your office... just like... jus —" Bette sighed. "Just like I was, some years ago. It takes a moment to find yourself against the fucking wall, trying to slip out his hands..." she rubbed her forehead. "Fuck"  
Tina knew how hard it was for Bette to talk about it.  
"Baby, I know I already asked this a million of times, but I really need to know why you didn't tell me"  
"Because," her eyes started to fill up with tears. "when he -did it- to me, he made me promise to never tell anyone. And that if I would, then he would've done the same to —"  
"To me" Tina finished Bette's sentence.  
"Exactly" Bette started to cry. "And I didn't tell you, because I knew you probably would have called the police and something like that, and I didn't want expose you to this fucking mess. He is a lawyer, he surely was able to come clean from this easily... I couldn't risk"  
"You never told to anyone?"  
"No, I kept it for me."  
"God, baby. You lived all these years with this huge weight on your shoulders?" Tina's voice was full of pain.  
"Actually, it didn't touched me that much. I tried to go on and let it go. As long as I was with you and he was far from us, that wasn't a big deal... since he came back a week ago... I started to panic" Bette crossed her hands. "I thought he told me that he would came back just to scare me, I didn't think he was actually going to do it"  
"So, you think this whole thing about the funding is only a way to get close to me?"  
"I absolutely do."  
Tina stood up and got closer. She sat on her lap and hugged her wife. "I'll be carefull and it will be alright, I promise" she said burying her head in the brunette's neck.  
Bette wanted to believe her, but she just couldn't. After sharing a very passionate kiss with her wife, she saluted her and left the office. After making sure her wife locked the door, she headed to the exit.

She was approaching the car, when she bumped into him again.  
Bette tried to ignore him, but it was like he was waiting for her.  
"Don't you want to say 'hi' to one of your old friends?"  
Bette tried to pass him, but he stood still. Making both of them doing the famous 'dance' when both of them go to the left and then go to the right. "I didn't know we were friends?" she finally managed to walk.  
"You know, I heard that when you share something with someone else, it means that this person is a very good friend" he said, with emphasis on the word 'something'. She knew he was talking about Tina.  
"We never shared anything" she said, she now was a few steps ahead.  
"I'll make sure we will, then"  
Bette stopped walking immediately and turned around.  
Her face turned pale.  
Then he gave his back to her and went away.  
Bette was paralyzed, she made her way to the car, as she sat down she dialed Tina's cell.  
"Babe, I miss you already?"  
Silence. She could hear Bette panting.  
"Bette?"  
The brunette swallowed, "You locked the door, right?"  
"What, you know I did, yes"  
"Good, stay in your office and don't go anywhere"  
"You know I have to go out, sometimes, to make things done on the set"  
"I know, but just stay there, today. Okay?"  
"Bette, what's wrong?"  
"Just. Fucking. Stay. There!"  
"Jesus fucking Christ, Bette. What's wrong now?"  
"He's going to hurt you"  
"Who?"  
"Santa Claus... Eric, Tina!"  
"And how do you know?"  
"He told me"  
"He told you?"  
"YES!"  
"Don't yell!"  
"Fuck, sorry. Okay. Listen, I met him here, near the parking lot and he clearly made me understand that he came back to take you away from me. I don't like this... I can't fucking take this"  
"Ok, babe. Calm down. Please..."  
"I can't. If you stay under the same roof with that bastard one more second, I'm going to die. Stay there, I'm coming back to your office."  
"What?" she couldn't hear her anymore.  
Bette hanged up the phone before Tina could utter a word.

Tina heard a knock on the door, "Who is it?"  
It was Bette, she walked inside.  
"Bette, your shaking... come here" she led her to the couch and sat next to her. "Tell me what happened"  
The brunette told everything that happenened a few minutes before and Tina was starting to get worry as well.  
"Come home with me" Bette pleased.  
"Bette, I have an important meeting at five."  
"There's no way you can reschedule it?"  
"Nope..." Tina hated it. She wanted so bad to tell her she could.  
"Can I stay here?"  
"What? Why?"  
"I don't know, I have this need to protect you, you know..."  
Tina took a deep breathe. She knews she couldn't argue with her anymore.  
"Okay, fine."


	13. Chapter 13

Bette remained at the studios, making sure nothing could happen to Tina. She knew Eric should've been there for all day long and with her staying there he never approached Tina or her.

After a long day at work, the couple made her way back home.  
Angie was with Kit, Bette asked her to take care of their child, since she decided to turn herself into a kind of 'bodyguard'. And that was the best thing, since both of them were surely going to have a fight and they hated it to happen when Angie was at home.

As both of them walked in the house, Tina looked strictly annoyed.  
"What's up?" Bette questioned.  
"This," she took off her shoes while walking forward the kitchen. "This is fucking absurd. I know you want to protect me, but this is enough. I don't need a fucking bodyguard!"  
"Are you serious?" Bette laughed impressed.  
"Of course I am, Bette"  
The brunette frowned. "Did you see him, early this morning? Did you hear what he said to me near the parking lot?"  
"Yes and yes. And I think that if you let him see how much you are scared, it will get worse" the blonde stated. "I think he's doing this on purpose. He just wants to scare you"  
"No, he's not. Believe me, I know him"  
"Oh come on, Bette. You know him? I am the one who lived with him for almost a year" Tina said, before she could take it back.  
Bette left out a throat laugh. Then turned her back and headed to the main bedroom.  
"Fuck... Bette, wait... You know what I meant" Tina followed her wife.  
Bette opened the room door and turned around. "Oh yeah, I know what you meant. You don't understand how fucking much he hurt me! And you know why I said I know him?... I said I know him, because the real Eric showed up the exact moment when he decided to RAPE me" she slammed the door. Tina stood there in front of the closed door.  
She never used that word... even when she decided to tell her what happenend. Tina remained there, in silence.  
The word 'rape' roaming all over her head.  
She had to do something.

"Listen, Bette... I'm going to call Mark" she said, lightly knocking on the door.  
Bette opened it, "What?"  
"Yes. I think... I think I should tell him the truth. I mean... I already told him I'm not comfortable with Eric being there, and he didn't accept to decline his offer but maybe —"  
"No, this is not going to happen."  
"What, Bette... How are we supposed to deal with this, then?"  
"I don't know... I don't know. And I don't want you to tell him what he did."  
"Bette are you sure it has to do with the fact that he may do something to me, or you just can't accept what he's done to you?"  
"What?!"  
"I mean, maybe you are in denial?"  
Bette chuckled in misbelief. "This is fucking ridiculous" she turned around and started to undress herself.  
"Bette, I think I'm right"  
"No, you're not."  
"Then, tell me what you want me to do."  
"Nothing, just stay away from him."

Both women got undressed and putted some comfortable clothes on.  
They did that without saying anything. They just gazed at each other occasionally. Until they stopped and looked at one another in the eyes, more deeply.  
Tina was near the wardrobe, Bette was right opposite her.  
They started to walking forward each other.  
Their lips met in silent and the only sounds filling the room after that were gasps and moans.  
Bette grabbed both Tina's thighs and pushed her against the wardrobe. Making the door to slam.  
The blonde opened her legs wide and bent them, grabbing Bette's hips with them. Her center right against her wife's.  
The couple started to rock and quickly took off the clothes they just putted on a few minutes before.  
"I guess we dressed up unnecessarily" Bette said, making Tina chuckled.  
"Shut up and kiss me" Tina bit Bette's upper lip.  
Tina's legs still grabbed around Bette's hips, the brunette squeezed them and pressed her center against the blonde's, even harder. Making their clits meet.  
The door slammed one more time.  
The two women kept rubbing their bodies against each other's.  
Their spots became wetter and wetter as they continued their rub.  
Without any indulgence, Bette entered her wife with two fingers.  
She was now gripping only one of her thighs with her left hand, while the other one was ready to give her beautiful woman lots of pleasure.  
Tina's hands roaming around Bette's back, she bent her fingers and sank her nails into the mocha flesh. The brunette left out a loud moan.  
Bette kept pulling her fingers in and out, letting her own clit bump against her wrist to be able to stimulate herself.  
The door slammed again and again, due the continuous thrust.  
"Baby," Tina panted, letting her head lean back. "Baby, together... let's cum together"  
It took just a few seconds to reach their climax... together.  
Still trying to regain her breath, Bette said: "I want to... I want to try to get pregnant this week..."  
"I can't wait, sweetie... Let's do it" she said, with her eyes closed. She smiled at the thought.  
The couple enjoyed the night alone, dreaming about the arrival of their new baby.

Two days after, Bette decided to pay the set a visit. Since she knew Eric would've been there the whole day. Fortunately, and to their surprise, those days he never approached Tina. Maybe because she always tried to be in company.  
But he looked like a vulture.  
A scary vulture, that was waiting for its prey to be alone.  
He never took his eyes off the two women.  
And that smirk. That fucking, irritating and scary smirk.

The crew, that day, was making some installations to get the scenography ready for the directing. The project was going well. And this was one of the most important for Tina.

Mark approached Tina and asked to talk to her privately.  
Tina made sure Bette could join them, Mark didn't argue with that.  
"Listen, Tina... I thought about what you told me the other day, about Eric. I made some researches..."  
"And?"  
"And... Someone told me that he's been accused of sexual harassment a lot of times..."  
"That fucking bastard!" Bette uttered.  
Tina placed her hand on her wife's shoulder.  
"Did he hurt you, Tina?" Mark asked, concerned.  
"No, he —"  
"He hurt me" Bette admitted. Not wanting to tell the whole story. "And he clearly said that he would've done the same to her if I talked"  
"If I only knew... I'm so sorry ladies" Mark said, mortified.  
"It's not your fault" Tina reassured him. "So, what are you going to do?"  
"I don't know, I was thinking about telling him I found a better solution about the funding and that we no longer need his help"  
Bette rubbed her forehead. She sighed.  
"What baby?"  
"I... I'm scared. What if he thinks Mark did that because I said something?"  
"Then, he won't do anything because we got your back" Mark stated.

Eric exited Mark's trailer, slamming the door.  
He noticed Bette and Tina, that were standing a few steps afar from him and approached them, "I swear to God... I will not going away without hurting you one last time... I know you did it!" pointing at Bette.  
Both of them stared at him, knowing he wouldn't have done anything.  
They didn't say anything.  
Then he moved away.

"It has been easy" Tina said, smiling at Bette.  
"I have to admit it, I think you're right" Bette winked.  
"Great, so no more Eric!"  
Both of them hugged each other.

"Oh my God! Move! MOVE!"  
Someone from the crew yelled.  
Something was happening but the two women couldn't realize what.  
"For God sake, move!"  
The man kept yelling.

Finally, Bette noticed that one of the pieces of scenery was collapsing right above them... the brunette instinctively pushed Tina away, making her fall on the floor.

Then everything went black for her.


	14. Chapter 14

"I have a code blue! A woman, 40 years old. She has a potential cerebral trauma, her breath is unstable. Her pulse is very weak. She's not responding."  
A officer said as he contacted the UCLA Medical Center via radio transmitter. As soon as they could the EMT's arrived.  
Tina was there. Helpless.  
She just kept staring with her eyes wide open. Crying.  
Her wife, the love of her life, was on the floor. Unconscious.

Just before getting her on the board, they ripped off her clothes and quickly assessed for pulse, heart rhythm and breathing. As the team hooked her up to the monitors, the respiratory therapist started giving her oxygen via the Ambu bag.  
One of them picked up his radio and contacted the UCLA Medical Center:  
"We have a woman, here. 40 years old. She's having breathing troubles. Potential punctured lung. Potential brain injury. Make sure to gather the team and to set up the operating room. She's unconscious. Her pulse weak. The technicians are monitoring her vital functions, we're coming over."  
Given her really bad condictions, they immeditately pushed the board into the ambulance to make their way to the hospital.  
Tina, of course didn't leave her side.

"Fuck! Her blood pressure is dropping."  
"Quick, the defribillator!"  
"Damn, the pressure just dropped to 0. She's in cardiac arrest."  
All they could hear was a continious 'beep'.  
Tina couldn't help but put her hands over her mouth. She shook her head, tears down her cheecks, "Please, baby. Please, don't let her die!".  
"Clear!" Nothing happened. The 'beep' kept reverberating.  
"Come on, let's increase the electrical strength."  
"Clear!" Bette's body jumped due to the electricity putted through her chest. Still nothing. They kept doing the same thing over and over again. Finally they managed to get their job done.  
"The pressure is going up again. The pulse is still very weak. She may have another cardiac arrest soon. We need to hurry up!"  
On the way to the hospital, Bette's heart stopped, for four times.

As they arrived, the team immeditately entered the hospital and in less than no time they made their way to the ICU.  
"Her pulse is too weak, keep ventilating and keep monit — "  
Just before they could finished the sentence, the monitor started to show a flat line. "Fuck!"  
"Keep ventilating!"  
"Come on! Don't give up", one of them whispered as they started the CPR.

In the meanwhile, Tina stood there. Alone, in the waiting room.  
She didn't know what to think. She just saw them taking away her wife.  
The only think left was a huge sense of emptiness and fear.  
She started pacing, crying. She never felt so alone in her entire life.  
After she managed to gain some strength, she dialed Shane's number.  
"Hey, Tina!"  
"Sh- Shane."  
Worried about Tina's way of talking she immediately panicked. "Tina, what's up?"  
"Bette..."  
"What Tina? What happened?"  
"Shane, Bette... She..." Tina couldn't talk, she was sobbing.  
"Tina, please. Try to talk, you're scaring me."  
"Shane, I'm... I am at the UCLA Medical Center... Bette, she's in critical conditions, I... I don't know what to do, please, I don't know what to do..."  
"Oh God, Tina. I'll be right there!"  
Without waiting for her to reply, she hunged up the phone.

In less than twenty minutes Shane made her way into the medical center and after asking some directions she speedily ran toward Tina, who was sitting on a chair, rocking herself back and forth.  
"Tina" Shane whispered. Her panick was obvious.  
The blonde stood up and pulled her into a hug. "My God, Shane. What if she die? What if she die?", she couldn't stop sobbing and shaking.  
"Tina, wha- what happened?" her friend asked, pulling out.  
"I... I don't know... we were on the set... we were hugging" her sobbing increased as she said that, "When suddenly the scenography collapsed... it hit her... she... she pushed me to save me... "  
"It's gonna be alright. I know it is. You know Bette. She is strong!"  
"I don't know, Shane. She looked so small in that wagon. She was sorrounded by people that were linking her to a lot of machines and they kept yelling 'code blue', 'cardiac arrest', 'blood'" she took a deep breath. She didn't realize she was talking without taking a break to breathe. "I can't lose her, Shane"  
"You won't, okay? WE won't!"

Back in the ICU, finally they succeed on taking her heart back to its normal beating. Although it still was very weak. Plus, they ran some head and chest scans and they needed to operate as soon as possible.

In the meanwhile, all the girls joined Tina and Shane at the hospital since the hair-styler warned them when she was on her way to the hospital. There were Kit, Alice, Helena, even Max joined them.  
None of them was saying anything. They were too shocked. They didn't even know what really happened and why.  
They just kept waiting, patiently.  
Tina, who was with her back against the wall, with her head lifted watching to the ceiling, suddenly broke the silence. "Where's Angie?"  
"She's with James... I called him before leaving, he's a very nice guy. He asked me to say his heart is with us" Kit said, rubbing her shoulder.  
Then the silence fell above them, again. There wasn't much to talk about, effectively. Their only concern was to know how their Bette was.  
"Tina Porter-Kennard?", finally someone dediced to pop out after a long and excruciating waiting.  
"That's me" Tina said weakly.  
"I am Dr. Thomas Bronson. I'm the one who's treating your wife's condictions."  
"How... how is she?"  
"If you may follow me we can talk about it, in my office."  
"Huh, can... can someone come with me? I am not sure I'm going to understand what you're saying..." she said shaking.  
"Sure."

Shane decided to go with her. Kit, at first, wanted to be the one to accompany Tina, but she suddenly had a break down.  
"So, how's she?" Tina asked again.  
"Well... I can't tell you her condictions are good. We did our best, and fortunately we managed to stabilize her heartbeat but it's still very weak. Her heart stopped several times, our team is keeping monitoring it. And there are two more things. We need to operate as soon as possible, since a part of her lung's filled with blood due to a collapsed rib that punctured it. That's what is causing her breathing issues. The other one is that she has a major brain injury and we need to operate as well, because she's suffering of subdural hematoma, then we can see how much the injury has affected her and see how to face the situation."  
"Is she going to be alright?" Tina said, with a little voice.  
"We can't promise anything... her vital functions are really compromised at this very moment. I'll do my best to make at least the operation to go smoothly. Then, it's up to her."  
"What does that mean?" Shane asked, Tina couldn't think and talk anymore. That was too much to take at one time.  
"Even if the operation goes well, it doesn't mean that she's going to wake up. Not soon, at least. I'm sad to admit we had to place her on life support... she's in God's hands at the moment" the doctor admitted, with professional composure, but surely saddened by the situation.  
Shane gazed at the doctor. Not able to utter a word. She couldn't believe her ears. That couldn't be happening. "Thanks, Dr. Bronson".  
"Anytime. We're going to operate soon, but before that, we need to compile some papers. I'll let you know, later." he replied. Then turning to Tina, "I'm truly sorry Mrs. Porter-Kennard but you know we can't take the risk giving false hope when we're not 100% sure if the patient is going to be alright".  
Tina just nodded, looking at the floor. "Can I see her?"  
"I'm sorry but at the moment we can't let anyone visit her. Her condition is too much unstable and we need to monitor everything without batting an eyelid. I'm sorry..."

As the two friends exited the office, the blonde left herself fall down on her knees. Putting her hands on her face, she started to bawl and sob "Don't leave me... Oh God, please don't leave me".  
Shane couldn't do anything but hold her dear friend.

After a few minutes, the two of them returned to their friends, that were waiting for them. Shane explained the situation to everyone. They couldn't believe the fact that their friend was fighting a really tough battle. Kit, her sister, could barely stand on her own legs.  
All of them cried silently, making sure to give Tina a lot of support.  
They had to be strong for her.  
And for Angelica.


	15. Chapter 15

Kit, Alice, Shane and Helena were in the waiting room, supporting Tina during a very long waiting, while her beloved wife was in the surgery room, in Dr. Bronson hands. Five hours passed, it seemed to be an eternity for all of them. Tina kept praying that everything went well.  
"God, they have been in there for hours" Alice whispered.  
"I know... It's hideous... but you know, they're making two tricky operations" Shane affirmed.  
"Yeah... I just hope everything goes well" Alice sighed.  
"It will go well" Shane stated.

Tina didn't say anything during those hours. She just sat there, in the chair. Staring into space. Sometimes she left tears fall down her cheeks, then she quickly recomposed herself. She kept doing this over and over again, it became routine. Until there were no more tears left.  
"Here, baby girl. Drink some coffee, I know it won't make you feel better, but you need to drink or eat something" Kit said, approaching her.  
"Thanks" the blonde gave her a weak smile. She knew it wasn't easy to Kit as well. Bette was her little sister.  
"It's ok, you know, I love you like a sister" Kit said, with tears in her eyes.  
"I know, I love you too" then her voice broke, another breakdown was incoming. "I can't lose her, Kit"  
The sister in law embraced a sobbing Tina and rocked her. "We won't lose her, baby girl. You know my baby sister better than I do. You know she's a fighter. She will be able to win this battle. We need to think positive. Okay? She will be back, as soon as possible. She will come back to us. To you and to your baby girl" Kit tried to assure her and herself. Now she was crying as well.  
"Kit, I'm sorry. I know how hard it is for you too. God, I'm sorry" the producer was mortified. But she couldn't help it.  
"No, Tina. You don't have to be sorry. It's normal. You can cry with me. And I can cry with you. But let's try to think positive, okay?" she said, wiping her eyes.  
The blonde nodded and took a deep breath. "It's all my fault".  
"What? Why are you saying this, baby girl?"  
"Because it's the truth!" Tina uttered, still sobbing.  
"What happenend, Tina. Do you know something? Please tell me, you know you can talk to me."  
Right in the moment the blonde was starting to speak, Dr. Bronson approached them. "Mrs. Porter-Kennard?"  
"Please, call me Tina. How... how did it go?"  
"Well, Tina... I'm happy to say that the surgery went really smoothly but her heart stopped other two times, during the operation. So, I have to admit that she is not out of danger yet. We need to wait and see how things go in the next days. She is still on life support. At the moment we can't allow visits since the team is still monitoring her heart functionality. And there's the risk she may have another cardiac arrest... the heart is too weak" he sighed as he said the last line.  
The blonde noticed his discomfort, "Are there any possibilities she's going to make it?" Tina chin trembled. '_Please say yes_'.  
"I'm not 100% sure... I'm sorry" the man admitted and then excuses himself.  
Tina stared into space. Not able to think or utter a word. She slowly left herself go down and sat on her heels. Her breath started to go heavier and she cried, sobbed and grieved like she never did before. "Oh my God, oh my God she's not going to wake up... Bette, baby... please I need you"  
Kit stood there, sobbind as well. Shane and Alice immediately approached their friend, "Tee, honey... come here, let's sit there" Alice said, holding her and with Shane's help they led the blonde to the chair.  
Helena approached her as well. "Sweetheart, it's going to be alright, okay?" she said, in her english accent.  
Tina shook her head, "Didn't you hear the doctor? He said her heart is too weak... she's too weak... what if-"  
"No, ifs! Okay? She's still here. She's not dead. She's still here... and as long as those machines are telling us there is still life in her, we're not going to give up, you understand?" Helena said in a tough, but still sweet, tone. Trying to motivate her friend.  
"I miss her... I miss her. I need to see her. Hold her. Talk to her... where is she? I want to be with her" she whined.  
"I know honey, but as the doctor said, they're making their best to make sure her heart is going to go back to work as before. Then, you can see her" Helena reassured her again.

A couple of hour passed and the gang was still there, in the waiting room with Tina. When two officers approached the group of friends and asked for the blonde woman. "Tina Kennard?"  
"Yes?" she said as she rouse from the chair.  
"Hi, I'm officer San Diego, I know this is a bad time but we need to ask you a few questions" the man said poitely.  
"I... I will be glad to help yeah, but what is it about, anyway?"  
"Um, might we talk in private?"  
"No, it's, um it's fine... I want them here. They're family, we can talk here"  
"Well, when we got the call, after the accident, we quickly took a look around, you know just for the routine... and we found out that the rope that was supporting the piece of the set had been cutted" at that statement Tina's eyes widened.  
"What? Mrs. Kennard, you know something?"  
"I-" she gulped and started to shake, her breath heavy. "He... he tried to kill her... Oh God, he tried to kill her..." she finally realized what happened.  
"Listen, Mrs. Kennard, I know it's difficult for you right now, but we really need more informations"  
Tina started to sob, that was too much. She was tired, scared, angry. That was just too much for her. At that, Shane approached her friend and looked at the officer, "Please sir, can't this wait? I think this is not the right time... I know it's your job and this is not your fault, but this is not the right time... it just...This is just too much right now... Please"  
The man couldn't help but feel bad for the woman who was crying right before him. He nodded silently, "Alright, but please call me, this is my card" he handed it to Shane.  
"We will, thanks... Come on Tina, let's go sit down" she said holding her sobbing friend.

Hidden in one of the room at the Sunset Tower hotel, there was the the perpetrator of the incident.  
"Did you lose your fucking mind?" someone said on the other side of the phone.  
"That bitch ruined all my fucking plans. I just lost control. Damn, what I was supposed to do? That asshole fired me, because -he said- they didn't need my help any longer. But I know, I know it's her fault!" the lawyer said loud.  
"Jesus Christ, Eric! Out of all the things you could do, you had to cut that fucking rope and almost killed that woman? Nor can we forget what you did to her some years ago at the gallery. You'd been lucky she decided not to say anything in all this time... but now, I really doubt it she's going to hide it any longer. Man, you're in trouble."  
"Fuck!" the man started pacing, holding his phone "I need help, there are too many evidences against me"  
"We'll figure out what to do, you just stay there. Don't talk to anyone. I'll call you."

In the meanwhile, Tina finally decided to talk to her friends. She talked about what happened to Bette in her office, years ago. And what happened on the set. She talked about Eric's threats and the resulting accident that caused Bette to end up on a hospital bed.  
None of them knew what to say. They were shocked. They kept asking themselves how Bette managed to live with that awful secret.  
Tina had no doubts, he caused it. "I'm going to make him fucking pay for this. I swear to God I'll make him regret to be born. No one! I said, no one can hurt my family and live peacefully. No one!"  
Those were Tina's words. Her eyes full of anger and hatred.  
What she wanted was vengage. "I want him dead"  
"Sweetie, I know you're hurting badly. But, this isn't gonna make things better" Kit admitted. "Hate is not the solution"  
"How? How can you not hate him? He... he raped my wife and then, years later, tried to kill her. She's in that fucking bed, connected at those fucking machines. Fighting between life and death... And you know what? I hate myself too..." her voice cracked, "Oh my God that's all my fault"  
"Baby girl, why do you keep saying that?"  
"Because she told me... She told me he was going to hurt us. And what did I do? I just kept saying that everything was gonna be fine. The hell it is! Now she's dying and that's all my fault."  
"Stop saying that!" Alice interrupted. "Stop fucking saying that she's dying. She's not dying. Stop whining and react, this is not going to help anyone for God's sake!" she said, but immediately realized the toughness in her words and placate herself, "I'm sorry... I need some air, I'll be right back"  
Tina just stared at her, stunned.  
Those words hurt but her friend was right... whining, crying, sobbing and being pessimistic surely wasn't going to make the situation any better.  
"I'm sorry guys, Alice is right" she sniffed. "It's just so difficult, you know?"  
"We understand, honey. It's okay. Alice is both, Bette and yours, friend. She's hurting as well. We all are. She just needs some time alone. It's gonna be alright."  
"It is," Shane added. "Bette will be with us again. Remember, we are in this together. I'll make sure that the son of a bitch will pay for what he did to both of you. I promise."  
"I'll help, my mother knows lot of people, she will be glad to contact some of them and make sure to get that bastard behind bars" Helena added.  
"Thanks, guys. I love you. Thanks for being here for me... for us"  
"Group hug?" Kit said, with tears in her eyes.  
Tina smiled, "Yeah".  
The four of them embraced one another with a incredible strength.  
Alice made her way back and looked at them, still hugging.  
As Tina realized she was there, she stretched her arm out to invite her in the big hug. The journalist smiled and quickly joined her friends.

That's what they all needed at that moment, as they waited for their beloved one to make her return.  
A simple gesture, capable of giving them a momentary peacefulness.


	16. Chapter 16

After learning what happened to their beloved friend, Shane without thinking twice called the officers. They needed to know what Eric did and they couldn't waist other time, he had to be found and he had to pay. Mark, who joined the group, giving his support to Tina, told the police about his last conversation - a really bad conversation - with Eric. He also talked about other women that accused him of sexual harassment, several times during the years. With all those declarations, there wasn't any chance he was going to come out clean.  
There were too much evidences: sexual abuse, sexual harassment, threats, verbal violence.  
"Can't wait to see that bastard pay" Kit uttered.  
"It's going to be alright, the officer called the station, they started the researches" Shane informed.  
"Good, I'm going to call my mother, she knows plenty of lawyers. I'll ask her to contact the better one" Helena said.  
Tina couldn't believe the dedition her friends were showing. She knew they loved her and Bette, but they never ceased to amaze her. That was just amazing.  
"Thank you, guys. Really, I don't know how I would have done without you" she said with teary eyes.  
"Anything for you and Bette" Shane hugged her friend.

Somehow, telling them about the rape and the accident, for Tina was a kind of relief. She now was able to think about the fact that soon Bette was going to have her redemption. She was happy despite what they were going through. She was happy that he was going to pay for everything he did to them, expecially to her wife. She didn't, for one second, stop thinking about what he did. And now, the moment had arrived. He was going to pay. The only thing left now, was to think about Bette and her wakening. After dealing with the officers, the group of friends finally relaxed, leaving the Eric-thing behind. It was police job to think about it at that moment.  
After the two officers left, the gang remained in the waiting room, waiting for further news about Bette's conditions.  
"Tina?" finally Dr. Bronson approached Tina.  
"Yes?"  
"We finally managed to stabilize Bette's heart fuctions. We moved her into a private room. You can see her. Of course, I can't say she's gonna be alright, yet. But I am pretty optimistic. She is a strong lady" the man smiled.  
"Oh God, thank you doctor. I know my baby is strong. Please, take me to her, I need to see her" Tina's eyes were filled with tears. This time those were hopeful tears.  
"Sure, come with me."

After hugging her friends, Tina followed the doctor and as they were about to approach the room, the man spoke: "Listen, before you go in, I want to warn you about what you're going to face. You will see lot of machines and cable linked to her, it may look scary at first, but they are working to keep her alive... So, be strong!".  
They entered the room and the first thing Tina managed to do was to gasp. She took her hands on her mouth and suppressed a sob. She was shocked. Looking at her wife, almost 'lifeless', laying on that bed. She looked so small and helpless. Her head and left wrist bandaged. Her face paler than ever. As Dr. Bronson said, there were cables all over her. If it wasn't for those machines, her wife would've been surely dead.  
"Here we are, I know, it's not a nice sight" the doctor said, "You can sit over there, in the chair next to the bed and maybe talk to her"  
"Can she hear me?" she asked with a small voice.  
"We don't know for sure, but I always give the advice to keep talking to the patients. The warmth and words of their beloved ones may surely help" he smiled.  
"Thank you" she replied as she sat.  
"Well, I'll leave you two alone, then" he left the room.  
She sat there, not talking. She just stared at her. The whole room was silent, except for the 'beep' emataded by the machine and the sound of Bette's breath. The continous 'beep' was, at times, annoying but it was the dimonstration that life was still in her - She was still alive and she was going to come back. And Tina was sure about that. At start she almost lost any kind of hope, but being there, looking at her, a huge sense of overwhelming hope crossend her body. Her eyes fell on Bette's right hand. She led her own hands and held it. Het thumb rubbing the upper side of the brunette's hand.  
"Hey-" her voice was hoarse due to the lump that formed in her throat. She cleared her throat and spoke again "Hey, baby... I hope you can hear me. I miss you so much, you know? The gang is here too, they are in the waiting room. They are waiting for you to wake up. We all are. I can't wait to see you dark eyes again. I miss your beautiful smile. Baby, you have to come back, okay? You can't leave me. You can't leave Angelica. Remember? We, we-" her voice trembled but she kept talking, "We were going to try for another baby. I want so much to have another baby with you... I will be waiting for you, and then... then we can enlarge our beautiful family and live our life together. Baby, we have to grow old together... you promised me, you would've grown old with me, so keep your promise, okay? Sweetie don't leave me. I can't bare to live my life without you, you're not going to leave me... You can't" the strong broke down finally hitted her. She couldn't talk anymore. She rested her head on Bette's arm and sobbed.  
She sobbed until she fell asleep.

Eric was still hidden in the hotel room. He didn't know that, out there, there were a huge amount of cops searching for him. The man that once acted like he could do anything he wanted, was now hidding and hoping for a miracle. He kept roaming across the room, trying not to think about it, but it was impossible. He was startled by his cell ringing.  
"Yes!"  
"Eric, it's me."  
"Fuck, man. You have to help me, I am dying here."  
"Listen, there are cops all over L.A. searching for you."  
"Shit!"  
"Look, I'm coming over, we'll see what we can do. The only thing I know, is that you don't have to hide."  
"What the hell, man! You just said I needed to stay here and do nothing."  
"I know, I know. But if we act like nothing is bothering you and if we build up a good alibi, maybe they will leave you alone."  
"And what if they, and I'm sure they did, talked about what I did twelve years ago?"  
"Christ, that's a good question..."  
"Dammit, Josh. I'm screwed" he kept pacing.  
"Listen, I don't know. I'm coming over, we'll see what to do. I know some people in the movie business, you know me, I am a quite a mugwump in this area. We'll see what we can do to cover you."

She woke up a little while later, her hands still holding Bette's. The sound of her breathing had a kind of calming effect. Even if that wasn't actually her to breath, but the machine was helping her, it was like Bette was talking to her, telling her she was still there with her. She caressed her face. She was so pale. And her forehead and cheeks were covered with scratches. She couldn't help it but leave tears fall down. She couldn't stand it. It hurt seeing her like that.  
"Bette, baby. That's me, again. I didn't leave your side. I am here, with you. Always. Please, come back to me. I so hope you can hear me" she placed her hand on Bette's heart. "Can you feel my hand? I can feel your heart. It's so good to feel you heart... When they told me it stopped several times I couldn't believe it. Your heart is so full of love. It can't stop beating... It has to keep beating, because my heart and you heart, they beat in unison. If your heart stop, mine stop too. You have to come back to me, to us. Angelica and I will be waiting for you" she started sobbing, again "Please, baby don't leave me".


	17. Chapter 17

**17**

**Chapter**

The cops spent an entire week searching for Eric. It was like he dissolved. No one could tell where he was. Mark gave them the details about which hotel he could've been at, since he and Tina met him in one of the most popular hotels in L.A. but there were no signs of him. After all, he had the slyness to keep himself anonymous… It looked like he premeditated all of this.

Those last seven days had been tough for Tina and the rest of the gang. The blonde spent the days going back and forth between home and hospital. She would've stayed at Bette's side the whole days but she had to be with their daughter. She was starting to miss her mother. Everytime she tried to ask Tina where she was, the woman couldn't do anything but say 'She will be home very soon, sweetie'. On the other hand, there were their friends. They didn't stop for a moment, they kept contacting people to ask help. Helena, thanks to her acquaintances had been able to contact one of the best lawyers in the States. He sworn he would've done anything to make him pay. The problem was… They couldn't find him.

As routine, Tina found herself at the hospital, talking to Bette. The wall above the head of the bed was now covered with drawings Angelica made for her, every day.  
"Hi babe," Tina pecked her wife on the mouth. "Angelica made you another drawing. It's amazing, you should she it. So hurry, and wake up soon, you need to see how good she is at it. She's an artist! She's becoming more like you every day"  
She approached the table near the bed and as she replaced the dried flowers with fresh ones she kept talking to her. She decided to share with her everything she was doing in the room, that way Bette should've known what was going on around her even if she could not see it.  
"Can you feel the smell of flowers? They are your favorite. I collected them from our garden. This way you can have our 'home' here with you" she smiled and sat in the chair. She took a deep breath, she tried every day not to cry. She didn't want to cry anymore. She wanted to share all the little things with Bette, the good ones. "When I wake up, this morning I found Angie cuddled against me. She's so like you," she chuckled. "She sleeps like you. That's incredible. When I moved to jump out of the bed she also groaned, the same way you do when you don't want me to go out of the bed. It's hilarious. She wants to see you, you know? She wants to read her books with you. Maybe in the next days I can bring her here, I guess you're missing her too"  
God, how much she missed her voice and those beautiful black eyes. She took a pause and stopped talking. She was becoming to feel a little overwhelmed and she didn't want Bette to feel it. She caressed her wife's face. Drawing an imaginary line across her jawbone, heading to her chin. The bruises were healing. And, somehow, she was regaining some color. She admired her beauty, making herself being lulled by the sound of Bette's breath and slowly dozed off.

Mark, on the other hand was dealing with the inspections the police kept carry out during the week. They wanted to make sure nothing was missing. Given the accusations against Eric, it was practically sure he was the one who caused the accident. They didn't have any doubts… since that day.  
"Hey! You can't stay here… The place is impounded. We're working here, you don't want to alter the evidences, do you?" one of the officers said. Staring at a man that, who knows how, approached the place where the set fell down. The space was supervised by the cops. No one could have access, neither the members of the crew, except for Mark who was helping the officers.  
"What? Why? What, what happened?"  
"Listen sir, you can't stay here, I have to ask you to live" he said, leading him somewhere afar from the 'crime scene'.  
"Um, okay. I was actually looking for a friend, but… never mind, yeah"  
"Josh Becker?" Mark said approaching him.  
"Um, hey! Hi, Mark"  
"What are you doing here?" Mark asked, a little puzzled.  
"Uh, I was looking for a friend of mine, I know he was working for you now"  
"Oh, who is it?"  
"Look, I really have to run, I'll see ya. It was nice to see you!" he said as he moved away.

The inspections went on, none of them seemed to find something significant. Suddenly, something drawn the attention of an officer.  
"What the—," he said, "Hey, Luke, take a look at this" he pointed at a pair of scissors that were half showing up from a bag placed on the ground. Next to them there was a piece of rope.  
"I need some gloves and two sterilized bags, those are certainly evidences."  
Mark noticed something was going on and asked them: "What is it?"  
"Sir, you have any idea to whom this bag belongs?"  
"Um, it may be Carl, yes, Carl… Um, why?"  
"Do you know where we can find him?" the man ignored Mark question.  
"Uh, yes, yes… He's our sound director, the last time I was him, he was in his trailer, outside the studio"

Tina woke up at the sound of the door opening, it was Kit. "Hey baby girl, I brought you some lunch from the planet. How's my baby sis?"  
"Still the same," Tina sighed. "Thank you Kit"  
"Anytime, baby girl. Anytime" Kit smacked her sister's forehead. "Hello, baby sister. We all are waiting for you. Morning at the Planet are so boring. We miss your fights with Alice" she laughed and silently wiped a tear away. Placing a hand on Tina's shoulder, she smiled at her.  
"The girls said they were going to be here in the afternoon, they asked me to say 'hello'"  
"We are such a great family, aren't we?" Tina admitted.  
"We are, we are" she smiled as she sat in the chair, next to Tina. "Now, let's eat!"  
The two women ate their lunch, talking about random things, making sure Bette could listen to them, that way she was able to be a part of the conversation, even if her role was just the one of the listener – they didn't care, the important thing was to make sure that Bette knew she wasn't alone.  
"I was thinkin' about bringing Angie, here" Tina said.  
"Don't you think it may be a little odd for the little girl?"  
"I know, Kit but… it's just… she misses Bette. She always asks me about her, she can't understand why she isn't home with us. You know?"  
"I know. Poor little thing…" she kept her voice quite, not wanting to Bette to listen the sadness in her voice. "Maybe it's a good thing… Maybe it's good for Bette as well"  
"Yeah, I think so" Tina smiled. Reaching for Bette's hand and holding it thigh, "She's so beautiful" she said.  
"She is, my baby sis is always so stunning. Even in these conditions" she chuckled.  
The conversation was suddenly interrupted by Tina's phone ringing. '_Odd, can't recognize the number_. She stared at the display for a while and answered at the third ring.  
"Tina Kennard"  
"Tina, it's Mark. Thank God you answered"  
"What happened?"  
"Listen, I don't know what happened, I just know that they arrested Carl"  
"WHAT? Carl? But, why?"  
"Well, apparently they found a pair of scissors and a piece of rope in his bag. And it happens to be a piece of the same rope that was holding the piece of set that fell down"  
"Yeah, but… Carl? I mean, Why would he want to do that?"  
"I don't know what say, Tina. I am clueless, really"  
"But, are they sure? I mean, are there any fingerprints on it or something like that?"  
"I don't know… They just took him at the central. They wanted to interrogate him. He kept yelling he was innocent, but they didn't want to hear excuses. Anyway they said nothing is sure yet, but they can't take risks and they have to do this. I just don't know what is happening today, it's just strange. Just a little while before Josh paid a visit here and then the scissors popped out"  
"Wait… Josh? What do you mean, Josh who?"  
"Becker, you know the producer"  
"Yeah, yeah… I know who he is" she said with a stern voice. "And what did he want?"  
"He just said he wanted to talk to a friend that is working for us. He didn't say who… then he just rushed away"  
"Mark… I don't know why, but I have a strange feeling"  
"I know, sweetheart, I had the same feeling… that's why I thought it was strange for him to being there. Listen I have to go. If I know something I'll call you, okay? You stay with your wife. Everything is gonna be fine"  
"Okay, thanks Mark. Bye!"

The sense of nausea that hit her was stronger than ever.


	18. Chapter 18

**18  
Chapter**

"We have a code blue in ICU, room 5. A code blue in ICU, room 5!"

"Ready for defib? Everyone clear."  
"Clear!"  
"Shock again. 300 joules. Clear!"  
"Clear!"  
"There's no pulse."  
"Shock again."  
"Clear!"  
"Still no pulse."  
"Don't stop ventilating. Shock again."  
"Clear!"  
"Give her one meg Epi IV."  
"Epi is in."  
"Shock again"  
"Clear!"  
"Damn, still no pulse."  
"Give her 60 Mixlito. Shock again."  
"Clear!"  
"Nothing."

"She's gone. Stop CPR."  
"Time of death: 5:13 p.m."

Other days had passed and there hadn't been any special developments during the investigations, apart from the fact that they kept going on. There were still some gaps and the police wanted to be sure to find the real culprit. Listening to Carl's interrogatory, over and over again, the detective decided to declare he was innocent. Plus, the man had a very solid alibi. So there's no way he was the one who caused the accident.  
Mark declared that the visit Josh Becker paid some days before looked a little bit too strange and the detective decided to insert him into the crime suspect list – they were pretty sure he might had sidetracked the investigations.

"Oh, fuck!" Tina woke up covered in sweat, with her face moistened with tears. She was having the same dream every night. She couldn't help but feel the panic inside each time it happened. It was 7 in the morning and she only slept two hours. And in those two hours she kept having those awful nightmares. They looked so real but, somehow, peace crossed her body every time she woke up knowing that Bette was still alive, since no one called her from the hospital.  
She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling – it was so cold. She missed Bette's warmth. There were times in which they didn't touch each other, but still she could feel Bette's body warmth. Without her, the bed just felt so empty, big and just cold.

After spending some other time in bed, she decided to start the day and get ready to go to the hospital to spend the day with her beautiful lover. She dressed up and fed Angie. Each day, was the exact replica of the day before. Tina moved by inertia. But, today – today there was something new, Angelica would've gone to the hospital to say 'hello' to her mommy.  
As they arrived, Kit was already there. Standing outside Bette's room. Panic immediately hit Tina, but as Kit realize the blonde's expression, she smiled. "Hey, baby girls!"  
"God, Kit, I almost panicked" Tina let out a sigh.  
"I'm sorry Tina, I didn't mean to scare you. I am out there just because they needed to do some checks on her. I decided to take a day off, so I can keep you company" she said, caressing Angie's hand.  
"Thank you, Kit"  
"My God, Tina, you look so tired… You need to take care of yourself" the older woman admitted, with concern in her voice.  
"I know, Kit. It's just too hard sometimes. I keep having these nightmares. I woke up and the image of Bette under that piece of set is in my mind. I fall asleep and the image is still there. Then I dream about things getting worse here at the hospital. God, I just want her back. I won't have peace until she wakes up" she shook her head.  
"I know baby girl, it's hideous. But now that our beautiful Angel is here, why don't we go to say 'hello' to Mama B?" Kit said, trying to cheer her up.  
They waited for the doctors to conclude their checks and entered the room. Bette's conditions were still the same. There hadn't been neither improvement nor worsening – well it was a good thing all in all.  
"Hello, baby" Tina kissed her wife's forehead. "Listen who's here"  
She invited Angie to speak, "Hi, mommy" the baby said with a little voice not wanting to disturb her since, early this morning, Tina said her Mama B was really tired and needed some good rest.

"Want to give Mommy a kiss?" Tina asked.  
The baby quickly nodded and Tina, holding her on her hip, bent down and let her baby kiss her mother on the cheek. Tears immediately formed in her eyes. Her heart ached too much. She can't stand watching their family going through such a pain. They already went through hell during the last years, and this was absolutely unfair.  
After lunch time, Angelica spent a couple of hours talking to her Mama B, sitting on the bed telling her some stories – the same ones Bette used to tell her every night. Then, exhausted, she dozed off on Bette's legs. Tina couldn't help but hope that Bette could feel the closeness of their daughter.

The rest of the gang joined Tina and Kit later that afternoon. They wanted to spend as much time as possible with Tina and Kit, letting them know that no matter what, they would've always been by their side. Alice, Shane and Helena knocked and entered the room.

"Hey guys" Tina smiled.  
"Hi baby," Alice approached the blonde and kissed her forehead "How's she?"  
"The same" she smiled weakly, "I brought Angie" she pointed at her sleeping daughter.  
"Oh, I really think it may be a good thing for Bette, maybe it can bring her back to us, right?" Alice said, trying to convince Tina and herself.  
"I am pretty sure it will" Helena admitted. "The power of love between a mother and her child is very strong "  
"It is!" Shane said, "So, hello Bette! Please, come back soon, Alice is killing us. We need your supreme power to deal with her"  
"What?!" Alice said, pretending to be hurt. "Bette, don't listen to her. You know I am a good girl. But, she's right, come back soon. We hate spending the morning at 'The Planet' without you. Oh, and you know, I can't wait to see you pregnant"  
"Yeah, that way you can give her a hard time!" Kit giggled.  
"Come on! I'm not that bad" Alice huffed and crossed her arms.

Tina couldn't help but laugh, and soon the others joined her. She didn't stop thanking God for giving her this beautiful family. The laughter was soon interrupted by Tina's phone.  
"Hello?"  
"Tina, it's Mark!"  
"Oh, hey, Mark," she said, to let her friends know who it was "Something new?"  
"Yes, actually. Since the discovery of the scissors and rope, I said the detective that it was a little strange for Josh to be here. So they decided to extend the investigations and listen what they found…"  
"What did they find?" she asked, holding her breathe.  
"Okay, we had the fortune to have the studios situated in a really inhabited street, so there are plenty of bars and markets here, the cops decided to ask them to co-operate and took a look at their security camera tapes. Josh had been caught holding something as he entered the studios. I haven't seen him holding anything when I approached him… so, they are pretty sure he already put them in the bag when they saw him"  
"But, are they sure?"  
"They are not 100% sure, but it may be a possibility"  
"Yes, but, why? I mean, why is he involved in this?" the woman was shocked.  
"I really don't know sweetheart, but what we know is that they already started the researches, they are sure they can get to Eric if they find him" he said, with his voice full of optimism.  
"My God, that would be great! I know, I know he did this. They have to find him and make him pay. They both have to pay"  
"We are this close to the conclusion of this nightmare, I am sure they will find him!"  
"Thanks Mark, really, thanks for everything"

Back to the hotel in which Eric was hiding, Josh joined him.  
"I did what I had to do, I'm pretty sure the cops are freaking out!" he said, smirking.  
"I hope you are right" he said, playing nervously with his fingers.  
"Don't worry, man. I put them in some of their—"  
The two men was startled by a hard knock on the door. "Who the fuck is that?" Eric whispered.  
"I don't know" Josh replied.  
"Fuck, we were supposed to be hiding!" Eric was starting to get ansious.  
The knocking continued, "Open the door! This is L.A. Police. Open… The… Door. Now!"  
"Oh fuck, oh fuck!" Eric said, pacing. "Man, they followed you! I am fucked! Jesus Christ I am going to kill you"  
"Open the door! We know you are in there, don't make us to break in!"  
"We have to open the door"  
"Fuck! No way."  
"Listen, if we keep hiding they will have more reasons to accuse us"  
"Okay, fine, open it!"

Finally, the two of them opened the door and as soon as the cops entered the room, they immediately handcuffed them. "Josh Becker, Eric Martin, you both have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning"  
Despite the advice from the cop, Eric betrayed himself as he has been hit by a huge sense of panic. "You fucking idiot! You promised me anything would've happened. You're going to die, I am going to kill you!" yelling at Josh.  
"You are such an ass, Eric, you know that? If we had one little chance to get out clean from this mess, you just screwed it all up. Really nice, man!"  
"Really nice, indeed. Thanks for giving us further clues. Now, shut the fuck up and come with us. Move!" one of the cops said, tugging and pulling them.


	19. Chapter 19

**19  
Chapter  
-**

**** It was night, after a long day spent at the hospital, without leaving Bette's side for one moment, Tina entered the house, holding the door open with her shoulders as she was carrying her sleeping baby. After taking Angelica to her room, she headed to the backyard and sat in a deckchair. It was a calm and peaceful summer night. She gave herself the chance to let out some tears. She held them the whole day, trying to be strong for Bette and especially for their daughter. Despite the good news she learnt earlier that night – Eric and Josh being arrested – the fact that Bette wasn't awake made her sad. She missed her so much. Her mind started to fill up with good memories of Bette and her, together. Just staying in the backyard, talking and enjoying each other's company. Until she was brought back to a specific memory.

_Early that day, the two of them had to participate in a Memorial Ceremony of one of their neighbors. She was a really sweet old woman, married to a very handsome man. They've been together for 54 years, 'till death tore them apart. _

_ "Baby, I really think I am going to die before you."  
"Bette, why are you saying this? You know I hate to talk about these things" Tina said, snuggling against her body, while they were laying on a deckchair, in the garden.  
"I don't know, maybe being there, this morning. Looking at how broken Mr. Smith was, I really think I wouldn't cope with the possibility of seeing you die"  
"You know what?" Tina said, pulling up and holding herself on one elbow "We're going to grow old together and we're going to die the same day. Together. First, last and forever. Nothing will tear us apart, neither death"  
"You promise?" Bette asked.  
"I promise" Tina uttered, "You promise it too"  
"I promise" Bette showed one of her breathtaking smiles.  
The two women sealed the promise with a gentle and heartfelt kiss._  
_  
_With tears falling down her cheeks, remembering Bette's question, she said to no one: "I promise".

As usual, those awful nightmares kept haunting her sleep. She spent the whole night turning and tossing until the morning after, when her little one made her way to the main bedroom and silently jumped on the bed, next to her mother. Tina felt the warmth of Angelica body and woke up, leaving behind her the hideous images the dream was showing. "Good morning, sweet-pea. Are you ready to go to see your mommy?"  
"Mommy, mommy" the baby said, stretching her arms up.  
"Yeah, we're going to talk to her the whole day, just like we did yesterday, right?"  
"I want to read" she missed reading books with Bette.  
"We'll bring your favorite book and we'll read it to mommy, okay?"  
The baby's face lightened up and nodded furiously.  
"Let's go make some breakfast and then get ready to leave, come on"

Following the same routine, since almost two weeks, Tina and Angie made their way to the hospital. It was midsummer, and Tina couldn't help but regret the fact that they weren't enjoying it together, like they planned. In thirty minutes the two of them approached the entrance and reached Bette's room – Everything was still the same. Two weeks had passed and Bette was still there. Unconscious. And there were no signs of changes. Tina hopes were shattered into pieces every time she entered that room and saw Bette on that bed, linked to those machines. But, then – then she automatically went back to that memory, the sweet memory of their promise. And she knew, she knew her lover was going to make it.  
"Hello, sweetie. Here's Angie, again" she kissed her and gently turned to Angie "Come on, baby.

Tell mommy what you took with you"  
"Hi, mommy. I brought a book! Mama and I will read it to you" the baby said, caressing her Mama B's hand. Standing near the bed. That little gesture from Angelica was so cute but yet so powerful. There was no way Bette couldn't feel it. Helena was right, the connection between a mother and her child is something beyond any forces on earth. And that was something that gave Tina strength. With tears in her eyes she held her baby and let her sit comfortable on the bed, next to her mother.  
"Mama T is right here, baby. I just need to put the flowers in this vase and then we can read the book, together, okay?"  
The little girl nodded and smiled. Tina's heart melted every time. She still didn't know how it happened, but the more she glared at Angie, the more she could realize how similar to Bette she was. It was a relief. Looking at their children and at the same time seeing some of the brunette's featured in the baby, somehow, gave her relief. It was like Bette was smiling at her, it felt good.  
After checking everything was in order, Tina took a sit in the chair and sat her baby on her lap. They started to read '_The Elves and the Shoemaker'_. It was the last book Bette bought to their little Angel.  
"The shoemaker didn't know what to think.  
He looked at the workmanship; there was not one false stitch.  
It was quite a masterpiece"_  
_Mother and daughter read the story, together. Well, actually Tina read it. Angelica knew it by heart. It was such a cute thing. Bette was amazed by how clever their child was. Tina always said she took that after Bette and the brunette always smiled sweetly. She never admitted that, but she loved it when someone said that Angelica reminded them of her.  
Thinking about that, Tina didn't realize she stopped reading._  
_ "Mama?" the little voice brought her to reality.  
"Oh, baby, I am sorry" then she resumed the reading.

The two of them spent another couple of hours talking to Bette 'till the gang made the appearance. Alice, Shane, Helena and Kit were there. As always. This time Mark was there too, and he clearly wanted to talk to Tina about something.  
As the blonde exited the room, leaving Angie in the room with her friends, she asked Mark what the matter was.  
"Nothing to worry about. It's good news, actually", he smiled, "Apparently Josh decided to spill everything. Later that night – when they arrested them – the two men has an argument and he surely did it to spite him. He told them everything, during the interrogatory."  
"God, that's great. But, um, I mean. Why? What's Josh role in all this?"  
"That's another thing he confessed. According to what they said, Eric defended him during a case. He had been accused of illegal drug trade. It happened a couple of years ago.

Now, I don't know all the details, but this is pretty much what happened. So, he did it just because he felt he owed him."  
"Well, thank God they fought, then!" Tina smiled, "Mark, thank you so much for updating me and for dealing with all this. Really, I know I should be the one to do this, but with Bette here, on that bed, I—"  
Mark cut her off, "Sweetheart, I'm doing this because I want to. The only thing you have to think about right now, is your wife" he said, putting a hand on Tina's shoulder.  
"Oh, and what about Eric? What did they say?"  
"Making him confess had been really hard, at first but thanks to Josh's admission, it had been easy to make the wall fall down. He practically snapped and freaked out, all of a sudden. And confessed."  
"That's great, God I almost thought it would've take a lot of time, and instead everything is going just great. The only thing left is Bette to wake up"  
"Keep your hope alive, you will be able to hold her and talk to her really soon, this nightmare is almost over" he reassured her.

Josh and Eric confessed. As Mark just said, the nightmare was coming to an end. The bastard was going to pay. She still didn't know what his punishment was, but that didn't matter at the moment. That was something they would've figured out in due time, in court. Her thoughts now, turned exclusively to Bette. After the conversation she had with Mark, she returned to the room and informed the group of friends. Needless to say their reaction. It was like that huge weight they were carrying on their shoulders, immediately disappeared.

It was later that afternoon when something else happened.  
The four women decided to go at the hospital cafeteria and buy some drinks, Angelica joined her aunties. Except for Tina. She never left her wife's side. Sitting in the chair next the bed, she suddenly sensed something unusual. She didn't know what it was. It just felt strange. Strange in a positive kind of way… Caught up with weariness, she didn't realize she was slowly dozing off. And she dreamt. It wasn't the usual nightmare she was facing every night.  
It was peaceful... And there she was: Bette. Smiling, looking at her. Oh, how she missed that.  
"Tee, wake up!" Bette said.  
"W-what?"  
"Please, baby. Wake up!"  
Before she knew it, the blonde woman woke up. It felt like an eternity, even though the dream lasted just a few seconds.  
And here it was again… that strange feeling.  
"Baby, wake up" Tina whispered. Echoing the words Bette uttered in the dream.  
And just at that moment, it happened. Tina at first, wondered if she was still dreaming. But she wasn't, Bette frowned.

The movement was soon followed by a weak moan.  
_'Oh, God!'_ She was waking up. Without any hesitation, Tina stood up and held Bette's hand.  
"Bette", she said softly, "Bette, baby?"  
Another moan. And this time she also moved a finger. She was slowly coming back to life. To Tina. To her friends.  
"Baby" Tina whispered one more time.  
And there they were, those beautiful black holes. Her eyes. They were open. And she was looking at her. Their eyes finally locked, after a long time.  
"You took your promise" the smile on Tina's face was something no one's ever seen before.

She was awake.


	20. Chapter 20

20

Chapter

She was finally awake. Of course, there was still no clue about the severity of the trauma, but the important thing, now, was the fact that Bette came back. The blonde woman immediately ran out the room looking for a nurse, who quickly warned the doctor. The three of them headed to the room and doctor Bronson and Clair – the nurse – started the checks.

"Hello, Bette", the doctor said, approaching the brunette. "I know it may sounds a little odd right now, I am your doctor and you are in the hospital at this very moment. I need to know if you are in any pain, okay? Tina will help us" he said, to a still dizzy Bette. Her eyes still trying to focus.

At the name of her wife, she immediately turned her eyes searching for her. She still couldn't talk due to the tube in her mouth that was helping her to breathe. The blonde woman, who never left her side grabbed her hand and smiled.

"Hi baby, I am here, I am not going anywhere" she said, seeing the discomfort in Bette's eyes.

"Alright, ladies. First of all, we need to remove this tube. And you, Bette, you need to start breathing on your own, again, okay? Hold your breath when I pull it out, that way you won't feel any pain" the man suggested, "Squeeze Tina's hand if you understand what I'm saying"

The woman gently squeezed her hand. "She did it, she understood"

After the cue, they gently removed the breathing tube. As the doctor asked, Bette immediately inhaled and tried to regain her own breathing. It had been difficult at first, but she slowly managed to stabilize her breathe. Tina, seeing that, couldn't help but feel the urge to bend down and hug her tightly. She hated to see her baby hurting and facing any kind of difficulty. She looked like a child – a lost child.

"Good job, baby, I am so proud of you" she said, caressing her forearm.

"Alright, let's do some checks" the doctor said as he started the swinging-flashlight test. He started with her left eyes and slowly turned to the other one. Then went back to the left one. He did the same thing for several seconds and sighed.

"What?" Tina asked, concerned.

"Um, her left eye didn't response to the light. If you take a closer look. You may see that her pupil is more dilated than the other one. But I can't say what's the problem is, since she can't talk and I don't know the symptoms"

"So?" Tina added.

"Let's try making some assumptions" he said, "Bette, I am going to ask you a couple of questions. I need you to squeeze Tina's hand 'once' if it's yes, and 'twice' if it's no. Okay?"

One squeeze. "She said 'yes'"

"Alright," the doctor started his questions. "Do you feel any pain in your left eye?"

"She squeezes it once. She feels pain"

"Okay," he said, writing something down "Now, do you have any trouble with your sight?"

Another squeeze. "Yes... What does that mean?" Tina's voice couldn't hide her high concern.

"It may be some kind of optical nerve problem. It's pretty common after cerebral traumas. I can't say what the gravity is. We need to wait until she speaks again. That way we can be able to give an accurate answer to our questions"

After another couple of checks, the doctor said that Bette was finally safe. Despite that little hiccup about her left eye – that in the dr. opinion it wasn't anything to worry about – things seemed to go well. Doctor Bronson prescribed a couple of pain killers for her left arm and her head and, after writing down more other infos, he left the room. They were finally alone.

Bette was still awake. And Tina never left her hand. She kept caressing it and looking at her beautiful wife. Bette slowly move her head to look at her. She tried to say something, but no sound came out.

"Baby, easy, don't force yourself. You need some time to regain strength. Okay?"

Bette closed her eyes and swallowed. Letting out a slow sigh.

"I know sweetie, I know it's hideous. I bet you wanted to say that – mocking Bette's voice and mannerism – you hate being on this fucking bed, in this fucking hospital. Right?"

Listening to Tina, she couldn't help but show a really weak half-smile.

"Oh, it's so good to see you smile" she said, and then she could feel two squeezes.

"What baby? No, what?" then she understood, "That wasn't what you wanted to say?"

Bette gently squeezed her hand. "Let's guess what you wanted to say, then" Tina added, looking into Bette's eyes. And she could see it. She could understand what Bette wanted to say. Her eyes spoke. No words needed. The blonde woman smiled, "I love you too".

That immediately brought another smile on Bette's face. This time it was even brighter. She squeezed Tina's hand once then slowly closed her eyes. Letting out a sigh, she dozed off. But this time Tina was happy to see her sleep, knowing for sure that she was going to wake up.

After being sure Bette was soundly asleep, she exited the room and saw the gang approaching her. Angie holding Kit's hand, drinking a Slurpee. The view of her beautiful family melted her heart and smiled a smile that no one's ever seen in the last two weeks. Kit, looking at her, understood something happened. And it surely wasn't bad.

"Hey baby girl! What's up?"

Tears quickly formed in her eyes. Happy tears. "Guys, she's awake! My babe is awake"

"Oh my God, I knew it! I knew my baby sis was a fighter. Come here!" Kit happily hugged her.

"Porter did it! This is great!" Alice said, crying and smiling at the same time, "My friend is a fucking rock star!"

"So? What did the doctor say?" Shane asked, excited by the great news.

"He said she's doing really well, despite what she went through. She's just having some trouble with her left eye. But the doctor said it is a common thing, given the head trauma. But he couldn't say anything more since Bette can't still talk and describe the symptoms. She's very weak"

"What that matters, now, is the fact that she came back to us" Helena uttered, hugging Tina. "With yours and Angelica's help, she will go back to live her life again"

Tina smiled a very happy smile and wiped her eyes. "She's sleeping now, so I think we'd better stay out here and let her rest. Then I'll let her see Angie. I know she's looking forward to see her"

Bette slept the rest of the day and the whole night. She was still very weak and the doctor reassured Tina saying it was a good thing, it demonstrated she wasn't in any unbearable pain. The gang left later that evening, and Kit offered to take care of Angie since Tina wanted to spend the night there with Bette.

"T?" the next morning the blonde woman woke up hearing her wife calling her.

'T' – she missed that simple little word. "Baby? What's wrong?" Tina asked concerned.

"Hi" Bette whispered and smiled weakly.

"Oh baby, hi" Tina caressed her cheek, "It's so good to hear your voice. Are you okay, are you in any pain?"

"I feel dizzy", she was finally talking – slowly – but it was a good sign anyway. Her voice was still too weak and she sounded groggy "And I can't see properly with my left eye. It also hurts"

"The dizziness is surely because of the head trauma you had. As of the eye, the doctor said it's common among patients whom had brain injuries. Now that you're finally talking again and can tell him how you feel, he will be able to tell us what caused it and how to cure it"

Bette closed her eyes and whispered "Yeah".

"You rest, baby. I am calling the doctor and we'll see what to do, okay?"

"Huh-uh" she nodded and slowly dozed off.

After talking to Bette, the doctor diagnosed 'Anisocoria'. As he said, it was a common thing given her head trauma. It is a disease characterized by an unequal size of the pupils. Apparently the impact temporary damaged her optical nerve, but the doctor said it was a not serious case. It should heal in a couple of weeks. The blurriness in her sight was given by the pupil that didn't response to light. Doctor Bronson was pretty proud of his patient. Bette had been strong and she woke up with no dangerous damages. Plus, she was responding really well to the cures. Usually, patients whom just came out of a coma aren't able to go through a conversation and barely manage to stay awake. Bette, instead, was almost acting like she got a simple flu.

The cures done in the next five days yielded really good results. The brunette was finally able to talk smoothly and sit up on the bed, without asking any help from the others. Despite her bandaged head, and her left arm casted, she was fine. Tina talked with her about what happened and who was behind the accident. Bette, at first, was furious. But she quickly calmed herself when Tina told her Eric and his buddy were in jail and that they were going to pay. She also didn't want to think about that, since she wanted to enjoy her family, without any other concern. They would've dealt with the Eric thing indirectly. Leaving the whole work to their lawyer, gently offered by Helena.

Bette was sitting on the bed with her daughter. Angelica didn't leave her for one second. She was so happy to see her awake and it was the same for Bette. She couldn't believe that she had been this close to death and risked to leave them forever. She had been blessed and she didn't stop thanking God for that second chance. She found herself hugging tightly her baby.

"Mommy, you're choking me!" the baby giggled.

"I am sorry baby, I'm just so happy to hold you" she sighed a content sigh. Then she turned to her wife who was folding some clothes "Hey T, come here, I want a group hug"

The woman smiled and approached them. As the nurse entered the room, she found the cute family and couldn't help but let her heart melt at that view. "Oh, what a nice family we have here"

The three of them pulled out, "We are perfect, aren't we?" Bette said, showing her 1000 watt smile.


	21. Chapter 21

The nightmare was over. After five more days, the doctor finally allowed Bette to come back home. There were no reasons for the brunette to stay there since everything was going pretty well, despite the trauma. Her left eye was still sore and her sight still blurred, but with the right cures she was going to have her sight back. The only thing left was to testify against Eric, in court. But it wasn't a big concern, since the lawyer was sure they were going to close that awful chapter really soon without any difficulty.

Tina helped her wife to get out of the car, she was still a little weak and she wanted to make sure nothing would happen to her. She was being a little too apprehensive, actually, but would you blame her? She just had her lover back and she was going to do anything to take care of her. Putting an arm around Bette's waist for support, she sweetly guided her to the door steps. Before entering the house, both of them shared a glance - all the love concentrated in one little glare. Then the two women smiled. And their smiles grown even brighter when all their friends popped out yelling 'Surprise!'. The house was festooned with balloons and a huge banner hanging from the roof said: 'Welcome home Bette'. Plates and trays full of sweets and pastry were accurately placed on the table. But the most beautiful thing was the smiles on their friends' faces. You could feel the love they all felt for each other.

"Oh my God, you guys! This is- this is so cute" Bette said, wiping her eyes "Thank you"

"When did you do this?" Tina said, joyful. "You guys, are the best!"

"Let's say we are a great team!" Alice uttered. "We managed to do it this morning, when you went back to the hospital to bring Bette home"

"I love you so much, guys, really" Bette added, hugging everyone.

The day went on smoothly. The gang spent a couple of hours with their two friends, showing their joy of having Bette at home again. But then decided to leave, since the brunette was still weak and she needed lot of rest. It was later evening and the blonde was preparing a genuine and healthy dinner. She missed cooking in their home, she almost forgot how it was to cook for her family, since she spent the last few weeks eating take outs or even without eating at all. The brunette was laying on the couch, taking a nap, when she felt the amazing smell. She opened her eyes and smiled. It was so good to be back home. Trying to avoid any effort, she got up slowly and approached the kitchen. Sitting at the table, she stared at her beautiful wife.

"Hi, gorgeous… it smells amazing" Bette whispered.

"Why, thank you! How are you feeling, baby?" she asked, still handling with the stoves.

"I'm okay, just a little dizzy and I think the effects of the pain killers are diminished. My right arm is starting to hurt" Bette said with a grimace on her face.

"Oh baby" the blonde got closer, and hugged her, kissing the woman on the forehead "We'll eat our dinner and then you will take another pain killer. After that, we can crawl up in bed together. Let's call it an early night. What do you say?"

"I say that I am the luckiest woman on earth" Bette stated with her, still sleepy, eyes full of love.

The lovely family dined together and Angelica spent the whole time talking with her mommies telling them what she did with her aunties earlier that day. She was becoming a chatterbox, just like her earth-mother: Alice. She was a hoot and Bette and Tina couldn't help but be amused by their little girl. As soon as they finished their plates, Tina suggested Angie to go pick up a book so she could read it with Bette, while she cleaned up.

Bette and Angie where on the couch, when Tina finished cleaning. Mother and daughter were sleeping like a log. Bette was on her back, holding Angie that was laying on her abdomen, with her head rested on Bette's heart. The baby fell asleep lulled by her mother's heartbeat. Tina almost felt guilty waking them up. But it wasn't a good thing letting them sleep there.

"Bette, baby" Tina whispered.

"Mm?" Bette moaned.

"Sweetie, you and Angie fell asleep on the couch. Wake up and let's go to bed"

"Mm-mm" she hummed again, slowly waking up. Tina couldn't hold back her chuckle. Bette was too cute when someone woke her up in the middle of her sleep. She looked like a grumpy child( grumpy in a sweet way though).

"Come on baby, I'll bring Angie to her room, take your time to wake up a little bit more. I'll be back in a minute and we'll go to our bedroom together, okay?"

"'Kay" the brunette uttered in a sleepy voice.

The two of them were finally in bed, together. After two long and interminable weeks, Tina could, again snuggle against her wife's body. In their bed. In their beautiful house that was now a home again. Without Bette it felt like an empty building. They were there now, together, and nothing could tear them apart again. Whatever the cost.

It was several minutes past 4 a.m. when Bette woke up, due to her arm. It hurt and sadly that wasn't much to do about that. She had to be patient and just wait until it recovered. But the hurt in her arm wasn't the only thing that brought her out of her slumber. She could feel Tina's breath go heavier. It was like she was having a nightmare. And, indeed, she was. She decided to gently wake her up when she realized Tina was starting to sob.

"Babe" Bette said weakly, slowly pushing the blonde's shoulder "Tee? Baby"

"No, no" Tina cried, "NO!" she finally woke up, soaked with sweat.

"Shush" Bette hugged her tightly, whispering love words into her ear. "Shush, baby, it's okay. It's okay"

"Don't, don't leave me, please?"

"Baby, I'm here and I'm fine. I'm not going anywhere. I swear, baby. I am fine"

Tina lifted her eyes to look into Bette's eyes. The brunette could see the fear and the hurt. And she could realize how much the accident affected her. Despite the fact that Bette was the one who's been harmed and she was now dealing with the physical pain, Tina was the one who had to deal with her wife on a hospital Bette, without knowing is she was going to wake up. It must have been awful. She thought. As bad as being hurt physically may be, psychological pain is way stronger. And, above all, it is even more difficult to fix. If someone is hurt physically, as long as you take medicine and wait for the wound to heal, everything is gonna be fine. But, if the pain is psychological it may takes a while to make sure it is left behind. And Bette was going to do anything for Tina and make sure she wouldn't leave with the constant fear of losing her.

Without pulling out, she kept whispering soothing words until she fell asleep again. Hopefully no more nightmare were going to haunt her beautiful wife's sleep that night. How wonderful it was to be back home and be able to hold the love of her life. Cherishing this little moment for several minutes, hearing to Tina's breath that was now finally steady, sleep finally claimed her.


	22. Chapter 22

It's been a week since Bette's recovery and the brunette was slowly, but perfectly, regaining strength. Everything was going back to normality, but something seemed to be wrong with Tina. The blonde woman kept having those awful nightmares and was acting a little detached. Bette tried to talk with her and gave her a chance to explain how she was feeling, but the only thing the brunette could see was a huge wall between the two of them. She didn't even go back to work. The woman was practically planted at home.

"Babe, I think you should go back to work" the brunette said, that morning.

"I don't want to" she replied, without looking at her, while she was folding some clothes.

"But why?"

"Because I don't want to" she echoed, leaving the room, holding a basin full of laundry.

The brunette followed her until both of them were in the laundry room. "Are you stalking me?" the blonde uttered. Her harsh tone didn't go unnoticed by a stunned Bette.

"Uh, um, no. I just…" she looked at her wife who was keeping herself busy with the laundry, then stopped herself. She just stared at her.

"What?" the blonde stopped and finally looked at her wife. She swallowed as she saw Bette's hurtful look. But she didn't say anything.

"Nothing, I'll be in the kitchen" the brunette smiled weakly.

"I don't know Kit, she's shutting me out. I don't know what's happening to her" Bette said talking on the phone. Pacing back and forth.

"Did you try a different approach?"

"What do you mean?" she sat on the couch.

"I mean, you know, you are her wife and well… do something that wives do. If you know what I mean?" the woman said, with malice in her voice.

"Oh," Bette chuckled "Yes, actually I did try. But, well, she's never up to it. She has always and excuse to avoid doing certain things. I don't understand what's happening to her" she sighed.

"Hey, baby sis, everything is going to be alright. Maybe she's just still shaken for what happened to you. It's been hard for her"

"I know Kit, I'd just like to do something for her; she doesn't give me a chance. Do you think she needs help?"

"Professional help, ya mean?"

"Yeah"

"I don't know baby sis, it may be a solution"

"Fuck" she whispered, rubbing her forehead. "Listen, I gotta go. Thanks for everything Kit" she saluted her sister as she saw her wife entering the living room and quickly heading toward the kitchen.

The blonde approached the counter and started to chop something. The mocha stood up and silently approached her wife from behind, pulling her arms around Tina's chest, startling her.

"Shit!" she turned around, facing Bette, and snapped "Jesus, Bette! You scared me!"

"God, I'm sorry, I—" she stopped, realizing the look of terror in Tina's eyes. "My God, baby you look like you've just seen a ghost. I didn't mean to scare you like that… Come here" she pulled her closer, holding her tight.

"Bette, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you, like that. It's just… I don't know"

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I don't know" the blonde sniffed.

"What is it? What's bothering you?" the brunette pulled out, looking into her eyes.

"I don't want to go back there"

"You mean the set?"

"Yes, that's where _it_ happened. I just don't like the thought of going there. It, it freaks me out. I don't want to" she started to sob. "I don't want to. Please, let me stay here. I want to stay with you"

"I know baby, it's hard for you, but—"

"No, you don't know that!" she said, rolling away from Bette's arms, and snapped again. "You don't know how it feels sitting in a hospital chair, looking at you lifeless wife who is lying on that fucking bed, asking yourself if she's going to survive. You don't know how it feels looking at your wife lying unconscious on the floor, covered by blood. You don't know how it feels listening to that fucking paramedics yelling that your wife's heart stopped for four fucking times!" she was sobbing uncontrollably now, talking was impossible. "Y-you don't kn-know"

Bette, shocked by her wife's outburst, couldn't help but feel relieved as well, since Tina had been holding all that inside for too long. Letting all out could be good for her. She approached her lover and gently pulled her into a hug. "Come on, baby, let it all out. I got you" she was now crying as well. Whispering soothing words to her, she kept holding and rocking her the blonde woman.

"Baby, don't you think that you should try to talk to someone?" Bette suggested.

"You want to send me to a shrink?" Tina said, pulling out and looking at Bette. The brunette couldn't tell what her wife was thinking right at that moment, but she surely wasn't happy about what she just said.

"No, I – um, yes, I mean maybe some professional help can be a good thing?"

"Fuck! Would you stop treating me like I am fucking crazy? I don't need professional help. I just don't want to go back to work. It's that simple!" she snapped again and Bette was starting to get used to it; it doesn't mean she was enjoying it.

"Listen, Tina. I don't think you are crazy or anything like that, okay? I just know that you're not okay… I can feel it. You're detached; you're having nightmares; you don't want anything to do with me, you don't even want to touch me or me to touch you. What's happening to you? I won't let this happen again. You're shutting me out and I don't like this. You know very well what happened last time we did it to each other"

"So you're telling me that you're going to cheat on me again!?" that's it, before she could stop herself, it was out of her mouth. She looked down, "Sorry"

"I am not even going to answer that" Bette uttered, clearly hurt. She sighed, "I just want to help you. And I'm begging you, please let me help you"


End file.
